Scans;
Scans;

   One of the things I keep hearing from people is that they've seen XTV but not read the manga, and just don't see where SK even comes from, won't I explain it as their dear friend? To which I always reply, "Dude. Read. The. Manga." Because aside from the one episode in the anime where Subaru jumps headfirst into Kamui's dreams to drag him out of La La Land after Kotori's death, the series is painfully devoid of all those intimate moments between to two that gives us the basis for speculation in the first place.

   As we are insane, masochistic people (does that say something about why we like this stuff, I wonder?) here's a short collection of gratuitous hand holding, hugging, and otherwise extremely fluffy behavior between the two of them. Take them as you will, but if you attempt to argue with me that there is not a close relationship here after seeing these pages I will actually mock you for trying too hard not to see what's right in front of you.

   P O L I C Y;
     A few things to note -- these images are not the best quality. I did that on purpose because I'm trying not to scan entire layout-worthy page spreads where I can help it so as not to get slammed for breaking copyright. This page is meant more to show you the evolution of Subaru and Kamui's relationship, like a really cheesy montage in an eighties movie, or you can think of them as really pretty teaching tools only less with the learning and more with the boy love.

     If you want to use them anyway, we like credit. We appreciate credit in the form of a link back to the site, as it would give us more visitors and make all the time we spent going swirly-eyed scanning and cropping and coding worthwhile. We do not however, require it, because we're not stupid enough to expect everyone to honor that. We hope you're one of the nice people who will.

     However, hotlinking is bad form. Don't do it.

   W A R N I N GS;
    1; As these are images from the manga, there are spoilers all over the page for said manga. Please do not come to us and tell us so, for we will have no choice but to reply with a hearty DUH.
    2; Also, these captions are opinionated and irreverent. If that doesn't float your boat, that's just fine, but please refrain from attempting to change our opinions because they don't strike you as hard fact. They're not meant to be.

The X Manga;
The X Manga;

[ Volume 9 ]

   Enter Subaru. Kamui is at this point comatose with grief over the death of Kotori after Fuuma undergoes 'the change' (hee hee vagueness!). Sorata is busy freaking out over his boy, and enlists the Sumeragi to fix him. Subaru takes it that extra mile into oh my God the subtext is rapidly becoming text. Behold, our highlights:

   [ PIC ] - Commence mind merge. Wait, wrong show. Er... spiritual joining? That sounds worse, somehow.
   [ PIC ] - Subaru finds Kamui in distress, reliving Kotori's death and Fuuma's change over and over in various forms. Subaru gets didactic and meaning of life-ish on the kid, shares his own angsty shoujo past and asks Kamui to live. There's a lot of crying, begging and wiping of tears while CLAMP smacks us all over the head with the boys' similar backstories just in case we missed that plot point on our own that goes on for pages (we call volume 9 the SK volume because of it). This picture is an exampe of a typical panel from this exchange. Isn't baby Kamui cute? *pinches cheeks*
   [ PIC ] - Kamui is touched. Or at least shocked enough to do what the preachy guy says, and agrees to return to the waking world. Cue infamous 'we're going home gratuitously cuddling' scene.
   [ PIC ] - Subaru is more on the side of worn out, and passes out in Kamui's lap. This scene is adorable, but you kind of have to ignore the severed head between the boys to get the full effect.

   Not much more worth scanning in this volume, but it should probably be noted that Subaru's hovering rather close to Kamui at Kotori's funeral.

[ Volume 10 ]

   Business as usual.

   [ PIC ] - Kamui demonstrates that he really took Subaru's message to heart. Poor Nokoru, no one listens to him anymore when there are significant looks to trade.

[ Volume 11 ]

   Kamui and Subaru study together.

   [ PIC ] - Kamui arrives late for a study date. Commence flustered cute conversation in which Subaru kills the mood inside of 3.5 seconds by announcing that he's only at school so he can have a cover to look for Seishirou. Kamui looks vaguely disappointed.
   [ PIC ] - Kamui has missed a lot of school being the savior of the world, and is having trouble finding a tutor who actually knows what he's talking about. Subaru says he didn't finish high school so he doesn't know how much help he'll actually be, but offers to try anyway. Kamui apologizes for needing help in the first place and Subaru grins like his old self for a whole panel, be still my fangirl heart.
   [ PIC ] - Once again the conversation turns to Seishirou, as Kamui notes that Subaru is one hell of a chain smoker. Subaru reveals that thanks to his connection to the Sakurazukamori his powers actually increase the more he smokes, which makes Kamui get all wilty because it's another part of Subaru that belongs to teh ebil one (oh come on, you can almost see the phrase floating through the kid's head here). He asks Subaru to be careful, because those things'll kill ya, and is surprised when Subaru actually stubs out the cigarette in his hand.

   Please ignore the fact that Kamui looks like a little girl in some of those shots. ¬.¬ I just love that 'holy crap, you actually care?' look on Subaru's face on that last page.

[ Volume 12 ]

   Subaru attempts to rescue Kamui from Fuuma and Nataku, and fails miserably. Cue the infamouse eye poaching scene, which still squicks me after all this time. Yuck, children.

   [ PIC ] - Subaru is getting thrashed. Kamui is stuck in some kind of binding spell that he's pretty much established he's not getting out of, but he's hurting himself trying to get to Subaru anyway. Nataku apparently thinks that's wack. Yes, wack. Kamui tells him to shut up, breaks free and gets to Subaru, unfortunately post squick.
   [ PIC ] - Fuuma does the obligatory 'in the real world the bad guys can win' speech like he doesn't realize he's in a manga and buggers off. Kamui freaks out, and gets very cuddly with the poor unconscious dude for a few panels. I like this one best.
   [ PIC 1 ] & [ PIC 2 ] - In the hospital, Subaru gets up off the gourney as he's being wheeled into the OR in order to comfort Kamui, just in case we doubted that wanting to have his eye squelched out made him an extreme person. Bloody cuddling ensues which you'll have to get your own copies of the manga to see, where he tries to tell Kamui it's not his fault Subaru's still a masochist.
   [ PIC ] - A snippet of post OR cuddling. This scene is the one where we all realize just how messed up Subby-kun really is when he reveals to Sorata that why yes, he'd once thought that it would be cool if his eye was plucked out just like Seishirou's. It wants to be cute, with him self flagillating and worrying about Kamui doing the same, but I settled on freaked over the eye thing.

   Seriously, ow. It should be noted though, that the scene in volume 12 where Kamui's slumping against the OR doors is a gratuitous parallel of Subaru slumping against a similar set of doors in Tokyo Babylon volume 5. I assume you all knew that already, but I'd be remiss for not bringing it up just in case (and no, I didn't scan it. Trying to be informative without breeching copyright on a massive scale, here).

[ Volume 14 ]

   Skip to volume 14, which takes place right after Saeki is killed. Much angsting ensues.

   [ PIC ] - Kamui has been spending much quality time passed out, y'know, like he does. He wakes to find a sheepish Subaru hovering over him, and finds out the Sumeragi has been holding his hand the entire time he's been out of it. Many fangirls die of cute.
   [ PIC ] - And then there's the infamous 'my arms are all ouchie won't you tie my tie for me?' scene. This kills me with cute, and I'm bitter.

[ Volume 16 ]

   Rainbow Bridge.

   [ PIC ] - Kamui senses Subaru is taking on Seishirou and freaks out, dragging everyone to Rainbow Bridge to help. They get there too late, and Kamui looks crushed to find Subaru cuddling dead!Seishirou.
   [ PIC 1 ], [ PIC 2 ] - They drag Subaru back to the Imonoyama mansion and Kamui tries to talk to Subaru, who tells him there's no such thing as a path that makes everyone happy and the only thing he needs to worry about is making his wish come true. Proselytizing even in duress, that's our boy.

[ Volume 17 & 18 ]

   Two more snippets, then we're done.

   [ PIC ] - In volume 17, Kamui hits instant replay on his entire history with Subaru and gets all 'I long to find you'.

   [ PIC ] - In volume 18, Fuuma gets all 'I know something you don't know' about Kamui to Sakurazukamori!Subaru, and snarks about how Subaru has feelings for Kamui, because he is moonlighting as Captain Obvious this week.

[ Epilogue ]

   And that's all she wrote, folks, at least until CLAMP picks her up again. If you've made it this far though, here's a bonus miscellany of color scans of the boys. Same rules apply, and be sure to hover over the thumbnails for a description of the picture and some witty commentary. You know you want the witty commentary.

[ back ]