Sakurazukamori

-Did you know that corpses are buried under every cherry tree?
-Corpses?
-Corpses are what make blossoms so beautiful. Cherry blossoms are normally as white as snow. Do you know what makes them turn pink?
-...
-Cherry trees feed on the blood of the corpses under it.
-The people buried down there... are they in pain?

What a young Seishiro said to a younger Subaru is true, in Tokyo Babylon and X. Effectively, the word 'Sakurazukamori' means 'Cherry blossoms grave' and describes a clan of assassins who use dark magic (onmyoujitsu) to kill people. Their victims' bodies, then, go feeding a wonderful cherry tree that catches their soul forever.
When the assassin does such a thing, he feels nothing. That's a Sakurazukamori's peculiarity: he doesn't feel love or hatred, his heart is totally empty of emotions, breaking a glass or killing someone is the same to him and, actually, the clan is composed of an unique person that, to become the new assassin, must kill the previous head of the clan, as well as everyone related to him.
In contrapposition to the darkness and the evilness of this family, there is the Sumeragi clan that, with the white onmyoujitsu, contrasts Sakurazukamori's activities.
So, it's easy to understand that these two families balance each other as ying and yang: good and evil, dark and light.

The lover...

Sakurazuka Setsuka. If in the whole X story her role is marginal, limited to the few pages of Seishiro's side-story in X16, reading about her make us understand that she's the key of Seishiro's desires and actions in X, I think.
Looking like a fragile porcelain doll, her thin body that seems is going to disappear at any moment, Setsuka is magnificent, indeed, but don't be fooled by her grace: like every Sakurazukamori, her sweet smile accompains a pair of gracious, yes, but blood-stained hands that can kill without regrets and emotions.
It's the emptiness that distinguishes a Sakurazukamori from normal people, but when one of these assassins falls in love, things get complicated. And cruel.
Setsuka does. Setsuka falls in love. As a woman, as a mother, this doesn't matter, the point is that she does. With Seishiro.
It was snowing when, one day, her son, 15, is returning back from school and finds her in the garden. Her fingers are wet of the blood of her latest victim, the last of her sacrifices to the Sakura. Seishiro hugs her, smiles at her, acts like he really cares for her, but there's no time anymore. Setsuka asks Seishiro to kill his first prey. Her.
But the girl is happy to die by his hand, since nothing is more beautiful than to be killed by the one she loves the most.
She gives her hand to the son that he's asking if she loves him...
"Surely" she replies "I love you more than anyone else, but I won't be the one you loved the most. Now, kill me, Seishiro."
Ready to make her wish become reality, the boy, hugging her, let his hand pass through the woman's chest. Announcing that he is, from now on, the new head of the clan, Setsuka confesses that also Seishiro will be killed, from who will take his place as an assassin consacred to the Cherry: the person that Seishiro will care for most.
Laughing softly and kissing his mother's hand, the adolescent says that he won't love anyone, she should know this, since she's his mother.
Setsuka smiles faintly at that reply, because - she whispers - she thought the same before she met him. Then, she dies serenely in his beloved's arms.
Murmuring a 'Sayonara', Seishiro gently kisses her lips.

The loved...

Sakurazuka Seishiro. Co-protagonist of Tokyo Babylon and a quite important character in X, Seishiro isn't certainly famous for his apparition in his sidestory, but surely this is what missed to understand him.
Seishiro was just a child when he became the new head of the Sakurazukamori clan killing his mother with a glacial carefulness. However, in this teenage Seishiro, it's easy (and funny) to notice an appearance of innocence and of unconsciousness of the love his mother feels for him, something that *can* be considerated incestuous because of the words, because of the looks. Maybe this ingenuity is just the consequence of the coldheartedness typical of his family, maybe the gentleness he reserves to his mother is just a performance of his qualities of actor. The smiles he addresses to Setsuka are the same that an older man could address to an unknown child and, in the end, Seishiro is able to pierce his mother's chest with a pitiless expression, the same as the adult Seishiro's one.
Actually, as he let us understand from the dialogue in the drama CD, maybe the truth is that he was in love with Setsuka's incredible beauty, with "the hair, the eyes, the lips... everything.". The only thing that can try to crack the ice in a Sakurazukamori's heart is beauty, at least: they respect beauty, the beauty of cherry blossoms, of the vivid red of blood, of gracious things.
Three years later (as we understand completely in Tokyo Babylon's LAST volume) he meets a child under his cherry tree. He wears a white shikifuku (the onmyouji's ceremonial kimono) and he sees the adolescent murdering a child. The assassin hurries up to erase the boy's memory, then, the little onmyouji wakes up again and, maliciously, the murderer asks if he likes cherry blossoms, smirking when the medium in miniature nods in assent, with a little 'yes'. Amused, Seishiro starts revealing him what is buried under cherry trees: corpses. His interlocutor stares at him, but keeps on listening also when the boy wants to know from him why cherry petals are pink and not as white as snow, how they really should be. Shaking his head, the child is not able to give him an answer, so Seishiro doesn't hesitate to tell him that they are pink because they feed on the blood of the corpses under their roots.
The green eyes are tearful when the innocent child wants to know if the men under the sakura are in pain.
This time the young man is surprised by such an innocent question, but he suddenly smiles and, taking the boy's pale hand, decides to make a bet: if they will meet again (then the wind makes the child unable to understand the rest of the phrase), Seishiro will try to fall in love with him for only a year, if this will happen the boy will be safe, if not, he'll be killed.
After this, he impresses his marks (an inverted pentagram) on each hand, to recognize him as his prey.
The Sakurazukamori's head can discover the identity of the boy seven years later: he's Subaru Sumeragi, 16, the 13th head of the Sumeragi clan, forgetful of the bet and with hands always covered with black gloves, as his grandmother ordered him to do. Next to Subaru, there is Hokuto Sumeragi, his identical female twin, his exact opposite: effectively, if Subaru is shy, reserved, incredibly altruist and kind, with the addition of his work of medium that involves him in cases where he always has to face human problems, Hokuto is cheerful, strong, resolute, with a huge passion for fashion, since she always wears fancy dresses made by herself, forcing her beloved brother to do the same.
Introducing himself like a sweet and witty vet, he pretends he fell in love with Subaru at first sight, when he was at Ikebukuro and Subaru had literally stumbled in front of his eyes. Doing so, Seishiro conquests Hokuto's trust and Subaru's friendship, even if the green-eyed boy refuses his joking avances with embarassment. The only one who seems to understand the his true nature is Hokuto, who, sometimes, becomes suspicious.
Anyway, the man helps the young medium in many occasions, with magic or with words and hints.
To Subaru, Seishiro and Hokuto are the most important people in his life and, slowly, he starts considering his friend in a different way, wondering if the smiling and cheerful character that Seishiro shows him it's true...
Things drastically change when Subaru meets Yuya in a hospital, this boy needs a kidney transplant and they become friends very quickly.
Actually, Yuya had a sister, Maya, who died four years ago because of the same illness: the mother had to choose one of the two sons to save with her kidney. She chose Maya, but the girl died anyway.
Now, Yuya needs to be operated on his kidney urgently because he can't go on with dialysis anymore.
Subaru thinks he could donate one of his kidneys to Yuya, but, before he can tell this to his mother, she tries to stab him, but... Seishiro shields Subaru with his own body and hurts his right eye. The vet has an urgent operation, but there's nothing to do anymore: Seishiro lost his eye.
Subaru feels the fault of this on his shoulders and totally loses his self-control, even if Hokuto can comfort him saying that Seishiro's eye won't heal, no matter how much tears Subaru will shed: now he must think about what to do for his friend. First, Subaru wants to excuse with him about what happened and, when he goes to the hospital, he does, ready to face, the man's hypothetical hatred. Of course, Seishiro forgives Subaru with a warm smile, denying his fault and asking Subaru to do everything he will request. The adolescent agrees and the vet sends him to buy some doughnuts.
During Subaru's absence, Hokuto says to Seishiro that he's special to his brother and that... Seishiro is encircled by the smell of blood. Then, the girl makes him promise that he won't take Subaru away from there.
Next morning, Subaru dreams about the bet and wakes up with a jolt. Intending to go visit Seishiro, he's wondering if the man could restart his work again, but Hokuto's answer is negative, so, after this, she asks hin about what he feels for Seishiro, saying that they are twins and, even if they received the same education from when they were children, but only Subaru was able to become an onmyouji. But his sister has the quality to understand her brother's heart better than Subaru himself, so, who's changed most? Subaru or Seishiro? Certainly, not Seishiro, he's just not pretending anymore. About Subaru's gloves, Hokuto thinks that he'll understand their utility very soon. Asking him not to go in a far away place, Hokuto let him go to the hospital.
So, what does the boy really thinks about Seishiro? When he was wounded, Subaru recognizes he couldn't understand a thing, forgetful of his female twin's voice.
Suddenly, he sees some boys teasing a blind man's dog. After a fight, the man can finally walk in peace. Subaru decides to accompain him, meaning to ask for some informations about that kind of dogs, since, he says, a dear person lost his eye to protect him. Ater some time, talking about his dog, the man says that, the day the trainer gave him the animal, said that it was born for him, to become his eyes, to superate difficulties together to be happy with him. He says to the young onmyouji that, from now on, he can become Seishiro's eyes, to describe him what he can't see and, even if they passed through a painful experience, now they can be happy again, together, like he did with his dog, then he adds that Subaru seems to have some special feelings for that person.
Thanking, saying goodbye and restarting to walk, the boy reflects: that day, when Seishiro partially lost his sight, Subaru was out of his mind, crying, crying, crying, he had never desired to be treated in a certain way from someone, he is conscious that every pain is different and that he does not deserve other people's kindness, but that day... that day he was afraid Seishiro could hate him or that he couldn't see Seishiro anymore. That's because he's special. Because Subaru realizes, in tears, that he is in love with Seishiro. He is going to open the door to confess him hiss feelings, but he finds out not the room, but a dark space, with the man in the middle, that has no hesitations to tell him about their bet, the marks under his gloves and revealing that, to him, there's no difference between breaking his arm or a glass. With this words, he punches Subaru really bad, showing that he has no feelings for him.
Then, the boy, traumatized by what the assassin did with his heart, falls in a sort of comatose state that only Hokuto can interrupt, after saying him goodbye and asking to be forgivened because she tried to bring the Sakurazukamori closer to him.
Hokuto goes asking the murderer to kill her. Seishiro does, then Subaru, a month after, can see what's happened in a dream.
The truth about the last volume of Tokyo Babylon will be showed in X. We are in 1999, the end of the world's close and Earth's fate's left in two groups' hands, the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth. Dragons of Heaven (Seven Seals) wishing to save the human being, Dragons of Earth (Seven Angels) wishing to erase it. Subaru and Seishiro are respectively an Angel and a Seal, even if they don't care about nothing but the end of the bet. Their first meeting is in volume 8, in a (wonderful and sexy) fight, where Seishiro asks Subaru if he wishes to kill him, but he receives no answer. In volume 9, Subaru saves Kamui Shirou, the head of the Dragons of Heaven, from the same state of unconsciousness that interested him eight years before: Kamui has been betrayed from his childhood friend Fuuma Monou, who killed his sister Kotori Monou, Kamui's unofficial girlfriend XD, becoming the head of the Dragons of Earth. Showing his memories to bring him back to reality, Subaru admits that his feelings for Seishiro aren't changed.
Things in Seishiro's personality get very interesting when, in X 12, Subaru loses his right eye because of Fuuma, who is now called 'Kamui', too. As usual, our favourite assassin remains indifferent, but Fuuma is able to puzzle him telling him that the Sumeragi wanted to lose his eye and that the assassin is the only one who can grant his prey's wish, even if that is very different from what he thinks.
Everything becomes clear in X 16, when Seishiro and Subaru meet each other on Rainbow Bridge and fight for the last time. Effectively, Subaru hits Seishiro with a hand through his chest, unable to understand what happened. In his last moments, Seishiro tells him the real meaning of his sister's death. The girl casted a spell on the both of them. If one of them tried to strike the other the same way Seishiro killed her, that tecnique would hit who used it.
Hokuto just hoped to save the murderer and her brother since she wanted them to live and not to invoke the spell, she wanted Seishiro to have his occasion to love someone, even if he committed sins.
The current position of Subaru and Seishiro is the exact reproduction of the one Seishiro and Hokuto assumed that day.
Tears start to fall suddenly from Subaru's eyes: he tried everything to erase Seishiro from his mind, he says, feeling the urge to kill him, but he couldn't, just because Subaru thought that, somehow, if Seishiro killed him and lead him join the Cherry, the Sumeragi would have been unforgottable to the assassin.
Seishiro smiles softly at the sight of his prey's tears: it's strange to be murdered from Subaru, since Subaru is so sweet... "Subaru-kun... I... you..." he whispers, before he falls, dead, in Subaru's arms, so the boy can hold him tightly. Seishiro's wish was to be killed from his special person, as Setsuka's story taught us. In fact, Subaru, in the next volumes, will be introduced as the next Sakurazukamori.
In X 17 Fuuma brings him... Seishiro's left eye, because Seishiro's true wish was for Subaru to see again through his right eye, erasing every trace of Fuuma from him, in a perfect Sakurazukamori way.
Accepting the eye, Subaru becomes the new Cherry assassin and, yes, a Dragon of Earth. In X 18, we can notice that, when Subaru slips off his gloves, saying that Seishiro is nowhere, the inverted pentagrams Seishiro marked him with are vanished from his hands.

Conclusions...

What is left to add about Seishiro and his mother eventually? I do believe these two are surrounded by an ethereal, dark atmosphere, they literally float in the moment, like a slow dance of sakura blossoms. A small but intense appareance that underlines the concept of absolute love, in which Setsuka plays the roles of mother, lover, child, doll, Sakurazukamori. And we know that's the twisted, extreme way of love CLAMP love sooooooo much^^;, the one we're really - maybe too much... mhhh *thinks of Seishiro and Subaru* yeah. ._." XDDD - familiar with.

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