The Ace Up My Sleeve
He stared at the card in his hand.
The clown stared back.
Placing it down, face up, on the card table, Kurei won.
That was more or less how it started really. Over a card game. Raiha sat on his left, and Joker on his right. It seemed that way for a long time. Before his dirty deeds were committed and the seeds of sin sown. The fallen angel, with his wings ripped from his back, thrown into the abyss. Kurei never cared, not for the blood on his hands, not for the darkness he surrounded himself with, just as long as he had Raiha on his left and Joker on his right.
Raiha came to him, or he should say he went to Raiha, many years ago, long before anyone else. Having grown up together, Kurei held no memories that did not have Raiha lurking somewhere in the shadows. So his earliest recollection of Raiha was as blurred as the dawning of the world, never to be tracked, never to be known. But Joker... Joker's arrival, like his personality was huge, and with a flourish that belonged only to him.
Few had seen Kurei in action and lived to tell of it, but Joker was one. Not only that, he was the only one who would dare to speak of it. Again and again, like a broken record, like an itch that keeps coming back stronger and stronger each time you scratch it. Who knew he would be craving it now? Neon was his cigarette, and Joker, his nicotine patch.
It wasn't that long ago, if Kurei really thought about it, but it wasn't that recent either. A relatively normal day, if killing a person before breakfast can be considered as such. He doesn't have to recall the feeling of the flame on his palm anymore, it's a feeling that burns into his soul each time. The screams for mercy, for redemption no longer resound in his head, instead, they bounce off his walls and his carefully erected barriers.
Grinding his foot into the floor, Kurei turned but not before uttering his final words to the burning corpse.
"I neither deliver mercy nor redemption, go beg Kami for that."
"Pretty words for a dead man."
Not sure if Kurei saw him first or he glimpsed of Kurei first, but there they stood, face to face, though neither could see each other's features. But simply standing there, having their Ki reach out to envelope the other's in an attempt to ascertain a motive, Kurei could feel something in him stir. This man was dangerous, but only as dangerous as he made him out to be, and as much as he needed to be.
"Was he such a sinner?"
Giving a short bark of caustic laughter, Kurei seemingly ignored the question though he gave a sidelong glance to the man, but because his cap was pulled low, all Kurei could see was a curtain of braids. Who was this man who managed to sneak up behind him? And what was in that long cloth-covered bundle that he was carrying around. A scythe? A spear?
"Interested in this?" The man held up the bundle, its odd shape illuminated by the rising sun, entrancing Kurei all the more though he loathed to admit it.
"If you asked nicely, I'll tell you what it is." A fanged grin appeared on the man's features, reducing him to a mere boy in Kurei's eyes. An amateur. He snorted.
"I care not for sinners or saints." Was Kurei's cryptic reply neither answering the boy nor asking him a question.
"And you care not for me either, do you?" If Kurei could see his eyes, he knew he would have been graced with a piercing glance, but he could not. Still, Kurei could feel the strength of the boy in his words and his tone. Yet he knew, too, that the boy was no threat. Not to him nor his flame.
"Step aside boy, or I will make a path for myself."
That one second where the boy lifted his head and his golden eyes bore into Kurei's orbs stretched. From a second to a moment of pure eternity. Those eyes of neither malice nor compassion burned into his mind, tattooing itself into his memories, being one of the first that Kurei recalled every time he thought of him.
"Ahh, you hurt my feelings."
Still, with those words, the boy stepped aside.
"But could I ask a question?"
Kurei stopped his tracks and though he did not turn to look at the boy, it was obvious he was listening.
"Do you play gin rummy?"
A strange question to ask, but it tossed and turned in Kurei's mind for weeks after the encounter with that strange boy. Kurei knew not how to react to him, was he an ally? Or a foe? An enemy? Or someone that could be trusted? Did Kurei even know how to trust?
Holding the cards in his hand, Kurei nonchalantly looked around the card table at Raiha, on his left and Mokuren on his right. Feeling strangely naked with someone he wasn't well acquainted with by his side, Kurei fiddled with the cards in his hands. Craving his mask at that moment, he didn't notice Mori Kouran enter until he was wrenched from his seat to face a pair of burning eyes.
"You will answer me when I call you! Did you hear me??"
Coolly pushing himself off his father's grip, Kurei merely smirked in reply.
"Is there something I could do for you, Otousama?" Changing the subject, Kurei cut the chase and ignored the irate look that graced the already horrendous features of the man in front of him.
"We have found another Madougu wielder. He wields the Taishaku Kaiten, and it is your job to bring him to me."
Grimacing at the memory of that day, Kurei gently fingered the scar on his left cheek, reminding himself not only of the sacrifices, but also of the pain and suffering that the mad man inflicted on his adopted son.
"O.tou.san..." He growled.
One day, one day even heaven and Kami won't stop him from his revenge. And somehow, he knew that this wielder of the Taishaku Kaiten would fight with him. Finding him wasn't that hard really, it almost seemed like he was waiting to be caught, but it was the believing that took Kurei aback.
"You... boy??"
A fanged grin greeted the rare sight of Kurei flabbergasted. Never in his years of existence would he think that the strange boy he met was the wielder of such a powerful madougu. Then again, being teleported from 400 years back, having a phoenix at his will, turning his beloved into a flame... really, why should he be that surprised?
"Yeah, what can I do for you? Here to play cards?"
Just as he said that, a pack of cards appeared from his pocket as he nonchalantly shuffled the deck deftly. He was obviously an avid card player and it seemed to be the only way to get to him. But first...
"You do have the madougu with you right, boy?"
Kurei was reluctant to toy with the gangly youth until he was absolutely sure there was no other way. Yet, this half man half, child ling in front of him intrigued him greatly. Even Raiha seemed to accept him as he smiled his innocent grin at the boy.
"Of course I do, you don't suppose I'd carry a fishing pole in there do you?" Poking his finger at the clothed bundle he carted around.
"What's your name boy? I don't play with strangers."
Laughing, the boy merely directed them to a table and sat down.
"Introductions only after one game. You've gotta earn it ya know?"
Yet another crooked grin was flashed in Kurei's direction. And there, in a queerly familiar fashion, Kurei sat with Raiha on his left, and the boy, on his right.
"So now that the game is over I do believe that you owe me an answer."
Biting back the derogatory 'boy' he was tempted to say, Kurei did not wish to call him by that, not if he was to work with the Taishaku Katen wielder in future. This is a chance to re-establish relations, and that is what Kurei is going to do.
Pulling out a card from the deck, the youth placed it in front of Kurei face up. Staring at the Joker card on the table, Kurei turned to regard the fanged grin that seemed to appear at a greater frequency.
"Joker, that's my ace."
Raising his eyebrows, Kurei crossed his fingers and sat back comfortably in the hard wooden chair, waiting for the next words that would enlighten him. But he was simply graced with a second piercing honey-colored gaze and a cryptic answer.
"I'll be your Ace."
Comprehension dawned as Kurei smirked. This would turn out to be one of the most interesting venture he was to embark on.
"Welcome aboard... Joker."
And he never called him anything else after that.
There they sat again, Raiha on his left, Joker on his right, Neon across him. Fingers casually clutching the cards in hand, Kurei nonchalantly glanced around the table at his loyal fighters.
Tonight was the night before the fight, hopefully, their final one. Still, Kurei knew that the chance any one of them would not survive lay there. It has been there since the first fight, and it would remain there until the day they lay down their madougus. That was the risk of each fighter, but a risk they willingly took. As a descendant of the established and reputable Hokage Ninja clan, Kurei knew the honour he was bound to and the integrity he was obligated to upkeep. But as he took in the determined faces of his compatriots, he could not help but wonder: What if they never return?
"Kurei-han," the whiny voice of Joker broke him out of his reverie. "It's your turn!"
Rolling his eyes heaven-ward at his strangely childish warrior, Kurei haphazardly scanned the card table and threw his king of hearts onto the pile.
"Gin!" Joker shouted gleefully as he picked the card up and ended the game. "Hand it over! Hand it over!"
Sticking his right hand out, he received and counted the pitiful coins the others dumped on him. Sticking his tongue out in retaliation of Neon's jibing, Joker laughed.
"Don't play Gin with Joker if you can't stand losing, Neon-han."
There was a reason why he kept his hair in braids. Because in braids he could control them. He liked control. That was an undeniable fact.
Perhaps that was why he had reached a situation as such.
He liked his freedom; his ability to control his life and what he wanted to do about it. He had never regretted his choices, but now, maybe, just maybe, having his kind of personality was not as great as he thought it would be.
After all, it did lead him to this. Choosing the way to end his life.
But that was the way he had cut the pizza. There was no way to go back.
"Good-bye, Kurei-sama."
Sitting there in that familiar pose once more, the room seemed to emit a different kind of atmosphere from that which Kurei was well acquainted with. No, instead of familiarity, he now beheld animosity and quiet, pained loneliness. No longer a game of closeness and playfulness but now something to merely pass the time and to drag his feet onto.
This time, with Raiha on his left and Neon on his right, they played.
He stared at the card in his hand.
The clown stared back.
It was supposed to be his trump card. Strange, how he seemed unwilling to use it now.
Perhaps he didn't want to lose it. Maybe this joker card he could keep next to him. He didn't want to lose another joker again.
In the end Raiha won the card game.
But he didn't mind. This time at least, Joker he still had.
"Ne, Kurei-han?"
"Yes?"
"Who's the girl in your flame?"
"... someone I once loved... and still do."
"Kurei-han?"
"What?"
"Can I... if anything happens to me, can I be your flame too?"
"You don't have to, you already are my ace."
"I like the sound of that."
"You're the one who wanted to be my ace."
"Yeah, but it sounds different coming from you."
"Joker?"
"Yeah, Kurei-han?"
"Shut up."
"Yes, Kurei-han."
~Owari~
A/N: Strangely, after re-reading the story again, I have a strange sense of peace and pain. Kind of feel like crying actually. But anyway, I'm supposed to talk about this piece. Yep, it's a the Xabie Challenge! Taken from two chapters actually, Braids of Control and Card Games. Wanted to write a ToFuu or something, but I read Card Games and knew I wanted that story to be told. Kurei and Joker's relationship is a strange one because Kurei being the stoic person he is, tends to hide everything. So here's his story and his side of the tale. I doubt this would be a popular story, considering how ToFuu sells more, but for once, I'd rather this story be told than garner reviews. *gasp* The review-maniac doesn't care about reviews anymore? Naaah, just this time. I would love it if you could review and let me know though.
Oh yes, in case you think that I'm some schizo, in the story there are many parts where the time frame jumps, and though I would change the paragraphing to make it easier for the readers to identify it, I decided not to, because the chronology is kind of like a walk down memory lane for Kurei, so I wanted to keep it as stream of conciousness as possible. Hope that I've gained that.
~Haruko