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ship_manifestoTitle: The Fake Sound of Progress
Author: Mefiant {![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mefiant }
Pairing: Monou Fuuma & Sumeragi Subaru
Fandom(s): Tokyo Babylon/X & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
Spoilers: Extreme and total spoilers for all series.
E-mail: subaru @ sumeragi.net
Word Count: 3443.
Notes: For Rio-cookietranscending. :3 ♥
T H E F A K E S O U N D O F P R O G R E S S
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
bymefiant.
S U M E R A G I S U B A R U
you look so worn, I bet that life has got you blown
tokyo babylon;;
Subaru is a teenager during Tokyo Babylon; sixteen at the start, and seventeen at the end. He lives in Tokyo with his twin sister Hokuto, and their apartments are right next to one another. As head of the Sumeragi clan, the most prestigious family of onmyouji in Japan, Subaru is constantly busy with exorcisms and the like, although he does his best to keep up with his schoolwork because his dream is to work with animals. A kind and gentle person, he nevertheless has very formidable abilities.
The manga focuses on his friendship with Sakurazuka Seishirou, a vet in his mid-twenties with possible connections to the Sakurazuka clan, another family of onmyouji that kill to protect Japan. Throughout the course of the manga Subaru confronts various moral issues and witnesses Tokyo’s “dance towards destruction”. Events come to a head when Seishirou is blinded in his right eye while protecting Subaru from a grief-maddened woman who wants a kidney donor for her sick son.
Subaru is racked with guilt, but just as he finally comes to the realisation that he returns Seishirou’s feelings and is in love with him, Seishirou reveals himself as the Sakurazukamori. Their entire year together was apparently a lie – they first met under the cherry trees when Subaru was nine and witnessed Seishirou killing a young girl to protect Japan. No one is allowed to see the Sakurazukamori work and continue to live, but instead of killing Subaru immediately, Seishirou made a bet with him. He would let Subaru go, but the next time they met he would stay with him for a year and protect him and try to love him. If at the end of the year he felt something for Subaru, Subaru would be allowed to live and Seishirou would take care of him forever. If not, Seishirou would kill him.
Seishirou does seem about to kill Subaru at that point, breaking his arm and generally injuring him, but retreats when Subaru’s grandmother manages to break into the illusion he has created around them.
Subaru goes “within” after this event, a catatonic state where he responds to no outside stimuli. Hokuto, whose wish is for Subaru to live even if it makes him miserable, takes his shikifuku and goes in search of Seishirou. After a month she finds him and demands that he kill her instead of Subaru. He agrees, and the shock of this event pulls Subaru from his within and wakes him up.
The conclusion of the manga shows Subaru clearly several years older, with a shorter haircut and a cigarette habit. He swears he will be the one to kill Seishirou.
x;;
Subaru is only recently twenty five in X, and appears much as he did at the end of Tokyo Babylon, taller and wearing monochrome instead of the vibrant colours his sister used to pick out for him. His first appearance leads to his first encounter with Seishirou after a nine-year search for him. They fight at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, and Seishirou asks Subaru if his wish is to kill him. He defeats Subaru but doesn’t kill him, instead leaving.
Very shortly after this Kamui makes his choice to become a Dragon of Heaven (Seal) and fight to protect humanity rather than destroy it. Fuuma kills Kotori in Kamui’s place, as she wishes, and the sight of the person he loves the most killing the other person he loves the most sends Kamui within, much like Subaru in Tokyo Babylon. Subaru is the one to go within Kamui and wake him up, pointing out the similarities in their situations and the importance of pursuing one’s wish even if it hurts others.
Subaru associates with the Seals after this point, although he presumably still lives at his own apartment. He enrols at CLAMP Campus so that he can use their facilities to help him track Seishirou, but doesn’t attend classes. When Kamui and Fuuma get into a fight at Sunshine 60, Subaru intervenes and faces Fuuma alone. He manages to trap Fuuma within a pentagram marked out by ofuda, but because of Fuuma’s ability to look like the person people wish for the most, he sees Seishirou and becomes distracted. The spell buckles and Fuuma finishes the encounter by blinding Subaru’s right eye while Kamui watches.
While Kamui feels guilty for the incident because he was unable to keep Subaru safe, Subaru insists that he wished to lose his right eye. This is the result of continued guilt over the incident nearly ten years before when Seishirou’s right eye was destroyed as he protected Subaru.
Not long after this comes the encounter at Rainbow Bridge. Hinoto sends Subaru there alone to fight Seishirou, distracting the other Seals by lying to them about an attack on the Yasukuni Shrine. Subaru finally reveals that his wish is not to kill Seishirou, and Seishirou seems about to kill him.
However, when Seishirou shoves his hand through Subaru their situations reverse and Subaru finds himself with his hand through Seishirou’s chest instead. Seishirou explains that when Hokuto died she cast a “final spell” that if he ever tried to kill Subaru the way he killed her, the action would rebound and he would die instead. Subaru then says that his wish was to mean something to Seishirou, and that the only way for that to happen was for Seishirou to consider him a threat and kill him. Seishirou then says his last words to Subaru, though they are partially unheard/unseen by the audience.
The bridge falls, and back at the Imonoyama mansion Subaru has one last conversation with Kamui before sneaking out of the window and disappearing. He is gone for a month, during which time he finds the Sakurazuka mansion where Seishirou’s mother lived. Fuuma visits him there and explains the last of Seishirou’s wish: that the mark left on him by someone else be erased. He has Seishirou’s eye in a container, but if Subaru accepts it he will become Sakurazukamori and a dragon of earth.
Subaru takes the container, and when we next see him he has two eyes again. He speaks with Fuuma on the rooftop of a building in Tokyo, and they discuss Seishirou’s wish. Subaru is seen in the most recent chapters standing by Fuuma during what may be the final encounter between Fuuma and Kamui. While he has shown his loyalty is now clearly to Fuuma’s side, he makes every effort to convince Kamui to realise his true wish.
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
The Subaru in Tsubasa is an alternate-universe version, which means the same soul and name but not the same history. He has only appeared very briefly, and much of his past is mysterious, but we know that he, along with Kamui (his twin in this case) is a vampire and from a world other than the ruined world of Tokyo he is found in. He and Kamui are running from Seishirou, a hunter, for a reason that has yet to be revealed. Upon arriving in Tokyo (not the same Tokyo of the TB/X canon) he is drawn into the reservoir of water under the government building by a feather belonging to Sakura. He sleeps there for three years while Kamui guards the area, and is only woken when Sakura herself arrives to claim the feather back. He seems eager to hear Fuuma’s message from Seishirou, despite the fact that the last we have currently seen of him is him leaving the world with Kamui, continuing to run.
M O N O U F U U M A
tell me now, can you hear the sound, of all these people falling down
x;;
Fuuma grows up at the Togakushi Shrine with his father (Kyougo), mother (Saya) and younger sister (Kotori). As far as we know the first nine years of his life were relatively normal. His mother was in love with another woman (Kamui’s mother, Tohru) but in balance everything was fairly idyllic for him. At nine he met Shirou Kamui and they became friends, but this was cut short when Saya, Fuuma’s mother, died in Tohru’s place to birth the first shinken. Tohru took Kamui from Tokyo and he only returned six years later, after her death as his shadow sacrifice.
By this time Fuuma was a successful student and still an obedient son, taking good care of Kotori, who had a weak heart, and showing a lot of responsibility. Kamui at first tried to keep away from the Monou family with the exception of trying to retrieve the shinken, afraid that his presence would cause them to be hurt. However, after Kyougo was killed by Nataku and the shinken stolen, not to mention Tohru’s sister Tokiko birthing the second shinken, Kamui decides that he will choose to become a dragon of heaven (Seal) because he wants to protect the place where Fuuma and Kotori can live happily.
At this point it is revealed to the cast that Fuuma is destined to be Kamui’s opposite and fight for the side that opposes whatever choice he makes. He kills Kotori, as is her wish, and pins Kamui to the wall with the shinken and broken glass. The trauma of this event causes Kamui to go within, and he only revives when Subaru goes within after him to wake him.
After this point things remain quiet for around three months – to change drastically when Fuuma destroys a kekkai/barrier. The manga continues with a fairly clear pattern; Fuuma grants the self-destructive wishes of those around him and continues to destroy Tokyo, all the while trying to get Kamui to realise his own wish – which is the only way humanity can be saved.
As of the most recent manga chapters, what seems to be the final, or penultimate confrontation is taking place. Fuuma is apparently about the impale Kamui with the shinken, while Kamui insists that his wish is to “bring the old Fuuma back” despite the assurances of others that his true wish is something else (presumably the same as it was earlier in the manga – that he wishes to protect Fuuma).
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
The Fuuma in Tsubasa is Seishirou’s younger brother, and also a hunter – though he hunts for work and not for his own gains, as Seishirou hunts for Subaru. He leads the Tokyo people that live in Tokyo Tower, and has clearly been engaged in rivalry with Kamui for a while. Though he is obviously prepared to fight Kamui and have a lot of fun needling and flirting with him, he doesn’t mind forming a truce, either, while Sakura goes out into the desert. We know very little about him other than that, except that he is and has been in the employ of Yuuko in the capacity of hunter.
E V I D E N C E
the more you think the less you act their way
before rainbow bridge;;
The easiest and most obvious way for Fuuma/Subaru to work pre-Bridge is because Fuuma has the ability to look like whoever people wish for the most. Subaru is obsessed with Seishirou, and it’s possible he’d be willing to take what he could get – in this case, a substitute. And even in a case that wasn’t particularly extreme or sexual, it’s been shown very clearly that Subaru is drawn to and fascinated by Fuuma when he sees him look like Seishirou.
It would be easy for Fuuma to manipulate Subaru into conversation and informal encounters. We know that Fuuma does converse casually with other cast members – most notably Seishirou, with whom he shares ice cream and discusses Subaru’s wish. If he’s prepared to do that with a member of his own side, if he could get close enough to Subaru without a fight then it’s obvious they’d have things to talk about. Fuuma resembles Seishirou, and to an extent, Subaru resembles Kamui. They’re in similar situations even if Kamui is much more brash, but the likenesses are present enough that Fuuma won’t have failed to pick up on them.
Aside from the idea of substitution, there’s the fact that Fuuma and Subaru have a lot in common with one another. Seishirou and Fuuma and Subaru and Kamui are usually grouped together like that because of the roles they play, but there are certain subtleties that show how similar Subaru and Fuuma are. Their respective love interests are both stubborn and phenomenally dense. Seishirou can’t work out Subaru’s wish, and Kamui can’t work out Fuuma’s or even his own. There has to be a certain degree of long-suffering bonding over the flaws and trials of dealing with the people they love.
after rainbow bridge;;
Post-Bridge, the similarities only increase, and the possibility of a relationship becomes even more evident. Subaru is the embodiment of what will result of Fuuma and Kamui’s relationship if it goes wrong, and Fuuma, people-expert, is perfectly aware of this. If Kamui doesn’t realise his wish then Fuuma will kill him as destiny ordains, and be in the same situation as Subaru (sans the eye in a jar).
And we all know that no matter how selfish Subaru professes he is, he’s still a kind person and has an instinct to take care of others. Fuuma has no one to rely on, and definitely carries some mummy issues. Who better than Subaru to take care of him a little? He learned everything he knows about it from Hokuto, after all.
Subaru may still only be able to think of Seishirou, and Fuuma of Kamui, but it’s still perfectly reasonable to think that they would be able to form some kind of bond. As far as we know, Fuuma is Subaru’s only human company from volume seventeen onwards, and since Subaru has no wish anymore he is the one person that can see Fuuma as the person he really is, and not as an illusion. The company and mutual sympathy must be refreshing for both.
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
Fuuma and Subaru only meet and speak once in Tsubasa, after Subaru has woken. While Subaru reveals claws and requests that Fuuma not hurt his brother, he also displays no threatening attitude when Fuuma behaves and doesn’t tie up his twin. He listens to the message Fuuma has from Seishirou, and is grateful. Again, while the canon pairings are Fuuma/Kamui and Seishirou/Subaru because CLAMP are notorious for never breaking their OTPs and Fuuma shows more than enough romantic and sexual interest in Kamui, Fuuma and Subaru still have that thread of understanding between them. Fuuma can see that Subaru has feelings for Seishirou and his expression shows sympathy. It’s these little interactions and moments of agreement and understanding between them, in any incarnation, that makes the interaction between the two so very interesting and enjoyable.
S H I P P I N G
so you can hear the fake sound of progress
my interpretation & why I ship it;;
Subaru is my favourite character, and I especially like writing him as the Sakurazukamori. It was only natural to fall into the Fuuma/Subaru pairing from there, since I tend not to write gen even if my romance is understated. When I got to know X better and my interpretation improved I found myself liking Fuuma a whole lot more, and that really cemented things for me. After that it was just time to think about the both of them and explore their dynamic before I settled on loving the pairing as much as I do now. It definitely complements being an S&S and FK shipper.
I prefer to see Fuuma/Subaru as something more than the straightforward idea that Subaru would be interested because Fuuma looks like Seishirou. Although I have written and played that scenario I think it has far more depth than that and would never leave out the core idea of the pairing – that it is Fuuma and Subaru, not Subaru and someone with Seishirou’s face.
I almost forgot to add this part because it seems completely self-evident, but I also detest seeing Fuuma written as “possessed”. It’s fanon and not particularly good fanon at that. Kamui in canon claims his wish is to “get Fuuma back”, but we are told repeatedly that he is mistaken about his own wish. This is not to mention the fact that all of Fuuma’s cruel acts have a purpose. He kills Kotori because she wishes for it and because if not Kamui will die then and humanity will be destroyed. He explicitly tells Seishirou he’s wrong about Subaru’s wish – its Seishirou’s own selfishness that causes him to disregard the information. The manga is littered with these incidents, and while it’s impossible to deny the shift in behaviour at the moment of choice, to say “possession” is to make a shallow and inaccurate judgement of a complicated situation.
why fubaru is awesome;;
The subtle aspects of the pairing are its greatest strength. Fuuma and Subaru are not going to leap into bed together and they are certainly never going to be in love with one another. But they have many things in common, and it’s so easy to see affection forming between them. They are both in unique situations that share significant aspects, and they have been shown to work closely together and to be more honest with one another than they are with other people. Fuuma discusses, however briefly, his wish with Subaru, which shows definite acknowledgement of their similarities.
Fuuma/Subaru is not a love story; that’s what makes it so good to see. It’s two love stories and how they interact and complement one another; it’s an exploration of Seishirou/Subaru and Fuuma/Kamui with its own special dynamic that only adds to the tragedy and complicated loveliness of what we see in canon. Romantic or platonic, when written well it showcases and explores both characters beyond the usual dynamic of how they feel for their twin stars/opposites, showing things through a new perspective that doesn’t detract from the significance and depth of the people they really wish for.
F A N D O M G U I D E
all these times that I want more
things to bear in mind;;
The Fubaru fandom is tiny and unloved, mostly because it’s not canon and Seishirou/Subaru and Fuuma/Kamui rightly have a much larger following. However, there are still bits and pieces to be found if you dig around.
links;;
Firstly there is the brand new community,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
foreordinance (which is also for Seishirou/Kamui & Seishirou/Fuuma). Join, discuss, etc.
Fuuma/Subaru fanlisting : TURBULENCE.
Fuuma/Subaru shrine : FAKE SOUND.
There isn’t much Fuuma/Subaru fiction out there. Write me more.
kara![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
kara_m
crazylittleme/vnilla
grayhour
mefiant/kamuikitten
If anyone knows of anything else of quality, please let me know and I will edit links in.
Author: Mefiant {
mefiant }Pairing: Monou Fuuma & Sumeragi Subaru
Fandom(s): Tokyo Babylon/X & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
Spoilers: Extreme and total spoilers for all series.
E-mail: subaru @ sumeragi.net
Word Count: 3443.
Notes: For Rio-cookie
transcending. :3 ♥xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
by
mefiant.S U M E R A G I S U B A R U
you look so worn, I bet that life has got you blown
tokyo babylon;;Subaru is a teenager during Tokyo Babylon; sixteen at the start, and seventeen at the end. He lives in Tokyo with his twin sister Hokuto, and their apartments are right next to one another. As head of the Sumeragi clan, the most prestigious family of onmyouji in Japan, Subaru is constantly busy with exorcisms and the like, although he does his best to keep up with his schoolwork because his dream is to work with animals. A kind and gentle person, he nevertheless has very formidable abilities.
The manga focuses on his friendship with Sakurazuka Seishirou, a vet in his mid-twenties with possible connections to the Sakurazuka clan, another family of onmyouji that kill to protect Japan. Throughout the course of the manga Subaru confronts various moral issues and witnesses Tokyo’s “dance towards destruction”. Events come to a head when Seishirou is blinded in his right eye while protecting Subaru from a grief-maddened woman who wants a kidney donor for her sick son.
Subaru is racked with guilt, but just as he finally comes to the realisation that he returns Seishirou’s feelings and is in love with him, Seishirou reveals himself as the Sakurazukamori. Their entire year together was apparently a lie – they first met under the cherry trees when Subaru was nine and witnessed Seishirou killing a young girl to protect Japan. No one is allowed to see the Sakurazukamori work and continue to live, but instead of killing Subaru immediately, Seishirou made a bet with him. He would let Subaru go, but the next time they met he would stay with him for a year and protect him and try to love him. If at the end of the year he felt something for Subaru, Subaru would be allowed to live and Seishirou would take care of him forever. If not, Seishirou would kill him.
Seishirou does seem about to kill Subaru at that point, breaking his arm and generally injuring him, but retreats when Subaru’s grandmother manages to break into the illusion he has created around them.
Subaru goes “within” after this event, a catatonic state where he responds to no outside stimuli. Hokuto, whose wish is for Subaru to live even if it makes him miserable, takes his shikifuku and goes in search of Seishirou. After a month she finds him and demands that he kill her instead of Subaru. He agrees, and the shock of this event pulls Subaru from his within and wakes him up.
The conclusion of the manga shows Subaru clearly several years older, with a shorter haircut and a cigarette habit. He swears he will be the one to kill Seishirou.
x;;
Subaru is only recently twenty five in X, and appears much as he did at the end of Tokyo Babylon, taller and wearing monochrome instead of the vibrant colours his sister used to pick out for him. His first appearance leads to his first encounter with Seishirou after a nine-year search for him. They fight at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, and Seishirou asks Subaru if his wish is to kill him. He defeats Subaru but doesn’t kill him, instead leaving.
Very shortly after this Kamui makes his choice to become a Dragon of Heaven (Seal) and fight to protect humanity rather than destroy it. Fuuma kills Kotori in Kamui’s place, as she wishes, and the sight of the person he loves the most killing the other person he loves the most sends Kamui within, much like Subaru in Tokyo Babylon. Subaru is the one to go within Kamui and wake him up, pointing out the similarities in their situations and the importance of pursuing one’s wish even if it hurts others.
Subaru associates with the Seals after this point, although he presumably still lives at his own apartment. He enrols at CLAMP Campus so that he can use their facilities to help him track Seishirou, but doesn’t attend classes. When Kamui and Fuuma get into a fight at Sunshine 60, Subaru intervenes and faces Fuuma alone. He manages to trap Fuuma within a pentagram marked out by ofuda, but because of Fuuma’s ability to look like the person people wish for the most, he sees Seishirou and becomes distracted. The spell buckles and Fuuma finishes the encounter by blinding Subaru’s right eye while Kamui watches.
While Kamui feels guilty for the incident because he was unable to keep Subaru safe, Subaru insists that he wished to lose his right eye. This is the result of continued guilt over the incident nearly ten years before when Seishirou’s right eye was destroyed as he protected Subaru.
Not long after this comes the encounter at Rainbow Bridge. Hinoto sends Subaru there alone to fight Seishirou, distracting the other Seals by lying to them about an attack on the Yasukuni Shrine. Subaru finally reveals that his wish is not to kill Seishirou, and Seishirou seems about to kill him.
However, when Seishirou shoves his hand through Subaru their situations reverse and Subaru finds himself with his hand through Seishirou’s chest instead. Seishirou explains that when Hokuto died she cast a “final spell” that if he ever tried to kill Subaru the way he killed her, the action would rebound and he would die instead. Subaru then says that his wish was to mean something to Seishirou, and that the only way for that to happen was for Seishirou to consider him a threat and kill him. Seishirou then says his last words to Subaru, though they are partially unheard/unseen by the audience.
The bridge falls, and back at the Imonoyama mansion Subaru has one last conversation with Kamui before sneaking out of the window and disappearing. He is gone for a month, during which time he finds the Sakurazuka mansion where Seishirou’s mother lived. Fuuma visits him there and explains the last of Seishirou’s wish: that the mark left on him by someone else be erased. He has Seishirou’s eye in a container, but if Subaru accepts it he will become Sakurazukamori and a dragon of earth.
Subaru takes the container, and when we next see him he has two eyes again. He speaks with Fuuma on the rooftop of a building in Tokyo, and they discuss Seishirou’s wish. Subaru is seen in the most recent chapters standing by Fuuma during what may be the final encounter between Fuuma and Kamui. While he has shown his loyalty is now clearly to Fuuma’s side, he makes every effort to convince Kamui to realise his true wish.
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
The Subaru in Tsubasa is an alternate-universe version, which means the same soul and name but not the same history. He has only appeared very briefly, and much of his past is mysterious, but we know that he, along with Kamui (his twin in this case) is a vampire and from a world other than the ruined world of Tokyo he is found in. He and Kamui are running from Seishirou, a hunter, for a reason that has yet to be revealed. Upon arriving in Tokyo (not the same Tokyo of the TB/X canon) he is drawn into the reservoir of water under the government building by a feather belonging to Sakura. He sleeps there for three years while Kamui guards the area, and is only woken when Sakura herself arrives to claim the feather back. He seems eager to hear Fuuma’s message from Seishirou, despite the fact that the last we have currently seen of him is him leaving the world with Kamui, continuing to run.
tell me now, can you hear the sound, of all these people falling down
x;;Fuuma grows up at the Togakushi Shrine with his father (Kyougo), mother (Saya) and younger sister (Kotori). As far as we know the first nine years of his life were relatively normal. His mother was in love with another woman (Kamui’s mother, Tohru) but in balance everything was fairly idyllic for him. At nine he met Shirou Kamui and they became friends, but this was cut short when Saya, Fuuma’s mother, died in Tohru’s place to birth the first shinken. Tohru took Kamui from Tokyo and he only returned six years later, after her death as his shadow sacrifice.
By this time Fuuma was a successful student and still an obedient son, taking good care of Kotori, who had a weak heart, and showing a lot of responsibility. Kamui at first tried to keep away from the Monou family with the exception of trying to retrieve the shinken, afraid that his presence would cause them to be hurt. However, after Kyougo was killed by Nataku and the shinken stolen, not to mention Tohru’s sister Tokiko birthing the second shinken, Kamui decides that he will choose to become a dragon of heaven (Seal) because he wants to protect the place where Fuuma and Kotori can live happily.
At this point it is revealed to the cast that Fuuma is destined to be Kamui’s opposite and fight for the side that opposes whatever choice he makes. He kills Kotori, as is her wish, and pins Kamui to the wall with the shinken and broken glass. The trauma of this event causes Kamui to go within, and he only revives when Subaru goes within after him to wake him.
After this point things remain quiet for around three months – to change drastically when Fuuma destroys a kekkai/barrier. The manga continues with a fairly clear pattern; Fuuma grants the self-destructive wishes of those around him and continues to destroy Tokyo, all the while trying to get Kamui to realise his own wish – which is the only way humanity can be saved.
As of the most recent manga chapters, what seems to be the final, or penultimate confrontation is taking place. Fuuma is apparently about the impale Kamui with the shinken, while Kamui insists that his wish is to “bring the old Fuuma back” despite the assurances of others that his true wish is something else (presumably the same as it was earlier in the manga – that he wishes to protect Fuuma).
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
The Fuuma in Tsubasa is Seishirou’s younger brother, and also a hunter – though he hunts for work and not for his own gains, as Seishirou hunts for Subaru. He leads the Tokyo people that live in Tokyo Tower, and has clearly been engaged in rivalry with Kamui for a while. Though he is obviously prepared to fight Kamui and have a lot of fun needling and flirting with him, he doesn’t mind forming a truce, either, while Sakura goes out into the desert. We know very little about him other than that, except that he is and has been in the employ of Yuuko in the capacity of hunter.
the more you think the less you act their way
before rainbow bridge;;
The easiest and most obvious way for Fuuma/Subaru to work pre-Bridge is because Fuuma has the ability to look like whoever people wish for the most. Subaru is obsessed with Seishirou, and it’s possible he’d be willing to take what he could get – in this case, a substitute. And even in a case that wasn’t particularly extreme or sexual, it’s been shown very clearly that Subaru is drawn to and fascinated by Fuuma when he sees him look like Seishirou.
It would be easy for Fuuma to manipulate Subaru into conversation and informal encounters. We know that Fuuma does converse casually with other cast members – most notably Seishirou, with whom he shares ice cream and discusses Subaru’s wish. If he’s prepared to do that with a member of his own side, if he could get close enough to Subaru without a fight then it’s obvious they’d have things to talk about. Fuuma resembles Seishirou, and to an extent, Subaru resembles Kamui. They’re in similar situations even if Kamui is much more brash, but the likenesses are present enough that Fuuma won’t have failed to pick up on them.
Aside from the idea of substitution, there’s the fact that Fuuma and Subaru have a lot in common with one another. Seishirou and Fuuma and Subaru and Kamui are usually grouped together like that because of the roles they play, but there are certain subtleties that show how similar Subaru and Fuuma are. Their respective love interests are both stubborn and phenomenally dense. Seishirou can’t work out Subaru’s wish, and Kamui can’t work out Fuuma’s or even his own. There has to be a certain degree of long-suffering bonding over the flaws and trials of dealing with the people they love.
after rainbow bridge;;
Post-Bridge, the similarities only increase, and the possibility of a relationship becomes even more evident. Subaru is the embodiment of what will result of Fuuma and Kamui’s relationship if it goes wrong, and Fuuma, people-expert, is perfectly aware of this. If Kamui doesn’t realise his wish then Fuuma will kill him as destiny ordains, and be in the same situation as Subaru (sans the eye in a jar).
And we all know that no matter how selfish Subaru professes he is, he’s still a kind person and has an instinct to take care of others. Fuuma has no one to rely on, and definitely carries some mummy issues. Who better than Subaru to take care of him a little? He learned everything he knows about it from Hokuto, after all.
Subaru may still only be able to think of Seishirou, and Fuuma of Kamui, but it’s still perfectly reasonable to think that they would be able to form some kind of bond. As far as we know, Fuuma is Subaru’s only human company from volume seventeen onwards, and since Subaru has no wish anymore he is the one person that can see Fuuma as the person he really is, and not as an illusion. The company and mutual sympathy must be refreshing for both.
tsubasa reservoir chronicle;;
Fuuma and Subaru only meet and speak once in Tsubasa, after Subaru has woken. While Subaru reveals claws and requests that Fuuma not hurt his brother, he also displays no threatening attitude when Fuuma behaves and doesn’t tie up his twin. He listens to the message Fuuma has from Seishirou, and is grateful. Again, while the canon pairings are Fuuma/Kamui and Seishirou/Subaru because CLAMP are notorious for never breaking their OTPs and Fuuma shows more than enough romantic and sexual interest in Kamui, Fuuma and Subaru still have that thread of understanding between them. Fuuma can see that Subaru has feelings for Seishirou and his expression shows sympathy. It’s these little interactions and moments of agreement and understanding between them, in any incarnation, that makes the interaction between the two so very interesting and enjoyable.
so you can hear the fake sound of progress
my interpretation & why I ship it;;
Subaru is my favourite character, and I especially like writing him as the Sakurazukamori. It was only natural to fall into the Fuuma/Subaru pairing from there, since I tend not to write gen even if my romance is understated. When I got to know X better and my interpretation improved I found myself liking Fuuma a whole lot more, and that really cemented things for me. After that it was just time to think about the both of them and explore their dynamic before I settled on loving the pairing as much as I do now. It definitely complements being an S&S and FK shipper.
I prefer to see Fuuma/Subaru as something more than the straightforward idea that Subaru would be interested because Fuuma looks like Seishirou. Although I have written and played that scenario I think it has far more depth than that and would never leave out the core idea of the pairing – that it is Fuuma and Subaru, not Subaru and someone with Seishirou’s face.
I almost forgot to add this part because it seems completely self-evident, but I also detest seeing Fuuma written as “possessed”. It’s fanon and not particularly good fanon at that. Kamui in canon claims his wish is to “get Fuuma back”, but we are told repeatedly that he is mistaken about his own wish. This is not to mention the fact that all of Fuuma’s cruel acts have a purpose. He kills Kotori because she wishes for it and because if not Kamui will die then and humanity will be destroyed. He explicitly tells Seishirou he’s wrong about Subaru’s wish – its Seishirou’s own selfishness that causes him to disregard the information. The manga is littered with these incidents, and while it’s impossible to deny the shift in behaviour at the moment of choice, to say “possession” is to make a shallow and inaccurate judgement of a complicated situation.
why fubaru is awesome;;
The subtle aspects of the pairing are its greatest strength. Fuuma and Subaru are not going to leap into bed together and they are certainly never going to be in love with one another. But they have many things in common, and it’s so easy to see affection forming between them. They are both in unique situations that share significant aspects, and they have been shown to work closely together and to be more honest with one another than they are with other people. Fuuma discusses, however briefly, his wish with Subaru, which shows definite acknowledgement of their similarities.
Fuuma/Subaru is not a love story; that’s what makes it so good to see. It’s two love stories and how they interact and complement one another; it’s an exploration of Seishirou/Subaru and Fuuma/Kamui with its own special dynamic that only adds to the tragedy and complicated loveliness of what we see in canon. Romantic or platonic, when written well it showcases and explores both characters beyond the usual dynamic of how they feel for their twin stars/opposites, showing things through a new perspective that doesn’t detract from the significance and depth of the people they really wish for.
all these times that I want more
things to bear in mind;;
The Fubaru fandom is tiny and unloved, mostly because it’s not canon and Seishirou/Subaru and Fuuma/Kamui rightly have a much larger following. However, there are still bits and pieces to be found if you dig around.
links;;
Firstly there is the brand new community,
foreordinance (which is also for Seishirou/Kamui & Seishirou/Fuuma). Join, discuss, etc.Fuuma/Subaru fanlisting : TURBULENCE.
Fuuma/Subaru shrine : FAKE SOUND.
There isn’t much Fuuma/Subaru fiction out there. Write me more.
kara
kara_mgluttony : The Sakurazukamori had chocolate. : wc;116.kelsey
tarnish : Stain the water red, he said. : wc;938. { trc-verse }
crazylittleme/vnilla3o kisses; 14 & 6 : radio-cassette player & the space between dream & reality : wc;310;268.mara
3o kisses; 4 & 5 : our distance & that person & ano sa… : wc;310;268.
grayhourquestion sleep : Subaru lived in the happy little world where no one was. : wc;6369.mefiant :
mefiant/kamuikittenuntitled : Subaru was a white flicker at the edge of his senses, edging closer with all of the hesitancy of a child expecting a beating. : wc;663.Also, there is Fuuma/Subaru content in the Lost RP (now indefinitely defunct). The relevant journals are here, here, here and here.
rainstorm; string instruments; apple : three drabbles. : wc;100;100;100.
20 Facts About Fuuma/Subaru : 2o facts about fuuma & subaru. : wc;1754.
tomorrow : Subaru refused to think of it as companionable. : wc;149.
meal for two : x_100; challenge: appetite : wc;100.
love all wrong : He remembered the last time he’d touched Subaru, and thought of aqueous humour under his fingernails. : wc;5197.
If anyone knows of anything else of quality, please let me know and I will edit links in.
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