TRICK THE CONCLUSION: Gyōza and Sushi

by: WhiteGloves

"Death had no terrors, life no joys,
Before I met with thee,
But now I fear, however long
My life may chance to be,
'Twill be too short for me!"

~ Poem 50 (Yoshitaka Fujiwara)

A/N: "Those two... seriously."

Enjoy Reading!

"What is it?" asked the woman with the envelope, suddenly stopping her performance to give him a curious look while he himself continued gaping at her, "why are you crying?"

"Huh?" Ueda Jirou also paused, and then looked away as he tried to muster his emotions. It was strange how her sudden appearance had stirred him, but it was stranger still why he was letting her perform her magic trick in the middle of his confusion and disbelief.

Was she only a figment of his lonely soul? Or was it that Yamada Naoko has really found a way to fool even 'death'...?

Ueda tried to give it a long thought but his mind was just too distracted of the person in front of him.

"N-no..." he said slowly, and then quickly clearing his throat as he shook his head and tried to dry his tears away, "that was just... ahh, never mind." He looked up at her but it was useless—he was tearing up again by just looking at her.

"?" the woman looked at him then spoke,"Well... look at the envelope already... the coin is gone."

Ueda gave her a long searching look, before finally reaching a hand and taking the envelope to him. With a suspicious look at her, he pried his eyes away from Yamada and tried to feel the envelope. Then just like he did a long time ago, he raised an eyebrow and looked inside too as if to check the contents.

As expected—it was empty.

He looked up at her. She gazed back humbly and somewhat innocently.

"You're right." He said quietly, "it's gone." He dropped the envelope on and table and waited for her to say something as he stayed silent. She has plenty to explain be it she a ghost or the real live thing after all.

But they remained too silent with one waiting for the other with eyes trying to send messages but she spoke no more. Ueda cleared his throat.

"Um... aren't you going to explain something?"

"Hmm?" the woman blinked several times, "what do you mean explain? Don't tell me you didn't believe me when I just showed you real powers?"

Ueda suddenly smirked and snickered at the same time. She looked offended.

"Why are you laughing? Could it be that... you really didn't believe I'm the real thing?"

Ueda stopped all of a sudden and shot her a look. Now that wasn't the reaction he was expecting and this confused him even more.

"Well... I know how you did it. It's a simple trick after all. You've already showed me this before... don't you remember? Yamada?"

As he said her name, he was certain that she would already drop all pretence and admit her identity already. It was again, to his great confusion and somewhat annoyance when she gave him a frown and shook her head.

"No, I'm not Yamada. You're mistaken. My name is Nakama Yukie."

"Are you an idiot? I know people had been saying you look somewhat like a celebrity but Nakama Yukie?" Jirou stood from his chair and towered her, "if that's how you dream better wake up already. Flat chest."

He flicked a finger at her forehead, forcing her head to move backwards a little.

"Oww! Hey!"

But Ueda had already confirmed it—she was alive in flesh.

"Now come already," the Professor had finally gotten to compose himself after the ridiculous conversation he was accustomed to have with her, "it's already late and we have plenty of things to talk about so why don't you stop fooling around and let's get your gyōza and sushi? It's already been a year."

"Oh," she spoke, suddenly as if thinking fast, "that... w-wait, no! What are you saying? That's not why I came here for— the prize money—yeah! Aren't you forgetting something? Professor-san?"

She gave too much emphasis on his title. Ueda Jirou gave her a look and smiled to himself.

It was her. There was no doubt she was alive. And there was also no question about why she was saying those ridiculous things right now. Yamada Naoko will always be Yamada Naoko. Be it from the grave or from heaven she would cross it all away—all of the sake of that thing that she loves the most—money.

Until when does she plan to play it that way then?

"Look—I didn't say I believe you yet—"

"But you saw the coin—"

"I'm a genius with 240 I.Q. I can easily tell you what happened. I bet all your life you've never seen anyone expose you? Look—"

But before the Professor could start something distracted his attention that made him stop—for then he saw from the corner of his eyes, people standing at his doorway. He looked up and found a man and a woman standing there watching him.

The woman, who calls herself Nakama Yukie saw him look away and followed her eyes.

The man and the woman by the door were both looking strangely at the Professor, especially the woman. Her eyes were dark, her skin too pale and the way she carried herself emitted a strange vibe.

But she was pretty, and that was enough to make Ueda pay attention to her.

"Uhhmm... can I help you?" he asked turning at them while Nakama Yukie watched the two as well.

"She's calling you." The man suddenly said with a deep end on his voice, making Ueda blink.

"Eh?"

"She's calling. The woman you're waiting for." He repeated, his eyes not leaving his, "You were waiting for her right? You were waiting for her to contact you from the other side and now she has."

Ueda gave a short pause and then looked down at the woman beside her. Nakama Yukie looked back up with a questioning look at her face.

"What?" the Professor turned to his visitors and then watched as the woman suddenly stepped forward with that strange look on her beautiful face.

"...Uedaa... Uedaa-san?"

Ueda frowned a little as the woman spoke each word as if they were familiar with each other. But then—in her high pitch voice that seemed to be calling from somewhere far, she continued—

"It's me... your old friend... Yamada Naoko. Finally, I found you."

Ueda's eyes rounded and he straightened up with goose bumps all over his body.

"W-what...?" he started, his tongue somewhat getting caught up with what was happening, "what did she just... say?"

"She's a spiritualist." The man said, his dark eyes narrowing, "A real one. She was contacted by this desperate soul from the other side and persuaded her to come and meet you. You two made a promise a year ago... it's what she said."

Ueda Jirou was speechless at this for everything was true—everything that he said was really true. With his emotions welling up, Ueda looked down at the Yamada beside her and found her with the same surprise expression.

He couldn't understand what was happening anymore. Here he was standing with two supposedly Yamadas! One was the exact carbon copy of the Yamada he knew but keeps on insisting she wasn't her. Then the other one was not exactly of the same body but was insisting she was her from the underworld!

Just what exactly was going on?

"Ueda...san..." the ghostly voice of the pretty lady called in a singsong voice that made Ueda shake to the bone, "have you forgotten, Ueda-san... our promise...? One year ago...?"

"B-but..." he licked his lips and shot the Yamada or Yukie beside him a quick look, "this is..."

"It's me. Naoko. Have you forgotten your promise?" and she raised her arms as if to call to him.

The Professor's jaw dropped open.

"Yamada?" he whispered, eyes flickering as he began to understand. "Is it really you?"

"Oy!" Nakama Yukie suddenly said, blinking several times as she watched him step close to the spiritualist, "a-are you really going to believe her?"

"Be quiet!" the Professor said with a slight look at her, "my friend from the other side of the afterlife is contacting me like what we promised...I can't believe it... Naoko?"

The strange woman nodded at him with arms still raised. Ueda pressed his lips closed and shook his head, his eyes swelling.

"Naoko!" and he jumped right toward her in a tight embrace. "Naoko!"

"Oy!" Nakama Yukie went after him and pulled him back, making everyone look at her, "what are you doing all of a sudden jumping and hugging a woman?"

"What are you saying?" Ueda said, pointing at the spiritualist, "I'm not hugging her—I'm hugging my dead friend, Yamada Naoko."

"That can't be—I mean!" she struggled to explain as the Professor raised an eyebrow, "haven't you considered the possibility she's a fake? How can you contact someone from the afterlife?"

She frowned at them while they gave her a dark look.

"People who do not believe in the afterlife," the man said, stepping forward and standing beside the woman, "have no right to stay in this sacred place where the impossible is happening. Professor," he turned to Ueda, "please ask her to leave. She is affecting the connection you have with the person in the underworld."

Ueda nodded and turned to Yukie Nakama.

"You heard him. You can go now." And he started prodding her out of the door.

"Oy—wait! Just wait!" she pressed herself away from being shut out with both hands firmly holding the doorway, "what are you doing—how about my prize money?"

"You have no prize money," Ueda said in a matter of fact tone, "compared to your coin duping a real spiritualist who actually called a soul back from the dead is more rewarding."

"What?! You believe her than me?"

"Of course," Ueda nodded with a look of certainty at the pretty spiritualist, "the fact that she knew my promise with Yamada a year ago about eating gyōza and sushi is already a proof."

"She never said anything about eating! You're the one revealing information!"

"I didn't tell them about Yamada."

"But that—!"

"Besides," the Professor's voice suddenly became low and Yukie Nakama felt the power of his hands disappearing from her shoulder, "unlike before when I first called spiritualists to challenge them for no purpose but my pride, I found her. Now, this time is a little different... this time the reason I called for all the spiritualist is to find her again... the real reason I'm now really looking for a real one."

Yukie Nakama looked behind her and watched as Ueda walked near the spiritualist again. He stood in front of her with a sudden solemn face and if it was possible—quivering lips.

"Yamada Naoko..." he held her hands, making Yukie's eyes widen, "I'm happy you were able to keep your promise. Now it's my turn to keep it... until the very end."

"Ueda...san..."

"Yamada... you can have all the gyōza and sushi in the world that you want. You can even have the prize money. Like I promise you, I'll treat you to them until you die. "

He grabbed and held her hand for a long time. "Let's go."

"You really are an idiot."

Ueda and the spiritualist blinked and then looked at the doorway to the owner of the voice.

There they found the long black haired woman shaking her head with eyes at the Professor with a knowing look. Ueda stared.

"What did you—?"

"I said you're an idiot," she repeated with a disbelief look on her face, "Ueda-san, how can you let them trick you like that? After all the things that exposed you to lies and tricks? Haven't you learned anything?"

"Oy, YOU..."

"That was a pretty easy trick they are making. Even I can do that with a bit of letting my hair fall in front of me and giving you that deadly stare. Ueda-san, what's the use of your I.Q if you don't use common sense?"

Ueda's eyes rounded. Her eyes narrowed at the people behind him.

"They're basically fooling with you." Pointing her finger up at them, she then chanted in the most familiar fashion, "I have seen through all of it!"

"Yamada..." Ueda muttered, letting go of the other woman's hand, "YOU... you really are the real one... huh?"

Yamada Naoko put her arm down and her eyes avoided his for awhile.

"Hai... it's the real me," she said quietly, "the real Yamada Naoko and I didn't die so I'm not anywhere in the afterlife. That's my first proof that they are fooling you."

The Professor glanced back at the man and woman who both looked at each other.

"But all the information they said—" he went on again, sounding uncertain.

"I told you you were the one who gave it to them—!"

"There's still a possibility that you're not YOU."

"What's that supposed to mean, Ueda?"

"Otherwise why did you deny it in the first place?

"T-that's because—"

"First then—" the Professor faced her with a straight face, "aside from claiming you are YOU tell me something that only the real Yamada Naoko can know."

Yamada Naoko looked unchallenged at this as she straightened and said with the same straight face—

"Ueda, you never change. Your attitude as still as BIG as your BIG part."

She pointed down. He looked down to where she was pointing and accepted defeat.

It was enough proof for the two of them.

"Amnesia?" the Professor repeated with a frown as next the two is found at restaurant open 24 hours around 1 in the morning with really real Yamada Naoko eating her life out with all the sushi and gyōza in front of her, "you had amnesia?"

"Well, it's like that," she shrugged as she gulped down a sushi in one take, "when I woke up I was under this stone rocks and when I went out of the cave no one was there."

"So you forgot who you were until now? For an entire year?" Ueda watched the magician closely with her past being revealed, "after the explosion you lost your memory and stayed in that country? How did you survive?"

"The locals helped me," she went on conversationally, "it wasn't easy but they treated me kindly. Actually, they treated me like their shaman so it was a bit of a relief to stay there."

"Then how'd you remember who you are?"

"Hmm... that was a miracle," she nodded vigorously, "one day I had this itchy feeling that told me I had to go somewhere far because there was this promise I had to meet... well, you know it already."

"I don't!" Ueda breathed and grabbed the juice glass in front of him, "Tsk. If I didn't know better you just decided to stay in that place because of the comfortable life you were living and decided to return when you thought it was convenient. Hmph. You probably used this amnesia to get a free passage back here in Japan."

Yamada suddenly became very silent and she avoided his eyes at all cost.

Ueda's eyes narrowed and a smirk appeared on his face.

"Right on the mark, huh?" he said. "Then if my understanding is right—you just planned to complete that one year bet we had so that you can eat all the gyōza and sushi you want that's why you didn't show yourself to me, huh?"

Yamada pressed her lips closed and this time—looked away.

"Then you showed yourself at my doorstep intending to take me for the food you want—when I announced about that prize money and you change your plan?"

The magician turned her head away, not planning to ever look at him.

"So that's how it was!?" Ueda said with gritted teeth and then shook his head with eyes boring at her.

"Who's fault do you think that was?" she retorted with a frown, "I woke up in a strange country and the next thing I know you've already left! You didn't even try to look for me! Who's the idiot now?"

"I tried looking for you!" he went on, "we just didn't find where you were exactly until the research was stopped! How about you? Why didn't you come back the moment you realized you were left behind, huh? And here I was so worried about you all this time. YOU... forget about me, how about your mother? Have you given her the heads up yet? She was worried sick about you for an entire year, idiot!"

"I've already talked to her," Yamada answered softly with eyes diverting from the food then to the Professor, "two hours ago right after I came from the airport. I had Yabe helped me by the way. Anyway, ka-san doesn't seem surprise I'm alive."

"Huh?"

"Well," Yamada resumed eating sushi, "she's always had this strange way to connect with me you know. It's probably in the blood. She said she could still feel me in the land of the living the entire year. She also mentioned that if I had really died she would have known. She would have seen me."

She gave Ueda an ominous look. The Professor returned her gaze and the two were silent for awhile as they pondered at the real ability of Naoko's mother.

"But seriously, Ueda-san," Naoko went on half an hour later as the two were found entering Jiro-go automobile, "would you really have believed that woman back there?"

Silence filled her question as the tall man turned the engine on.

"Oy, I'm asking you a question." She gave him a long look, "if I hadn't been there those two might have made a big fool out of you! And then all your prize money—"

"Who knows," Ueda Jirou answered as he manoeuvred the car and then hit the break, making Yamada Naoko look at him with wide eyes, "I might have."

"Huh?"

"I remembered lots of things."

"What?"

Ueda gave a short pause, before smirking and shaking his head.

"A person like you with an unknown I.Q wouldn't understand someone like me so stop asking."

"Ueda!"

"Anyways, let's go." And he drove the car into the silent night.

"Oh right," came Naoko's voice, "I haven't paid my rent for a whole year... did you visit my place all those times?"

"Didn't. But I think they've already had someone rent it."

"Heh? How about my stuffs? Where do I live now?"

"Serves you right. Tsk. Living in the shoulders of others in another country. You're nerve."

"I had no choice alright? And you could have taken care of my place while I was away?"

"Why do I have to do that?"

"You're the one who left me alone there?"

"I didn't know you were alive."

"I had amnesia!"

"Temporarily. Which surprisingly disappeared the moment you realized you can be their shaman."

"That's not true! Ah wait—this is my street! Hey!"

"No point turning there. They've turned your house into a stock room."

"How'd you know?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Yamada stopped talking for awhile and then sighed.

"Great... now where do I stay?"

"Yeah, how can you look for another apartment that can let you stay there without paying your rent?"

"Ueda!"

"Anyways, we'll go straight to my place."

"Uh?"

"If you didn't know—I just became Japan's best scientist of the year plus a 50 million yen on my assets. I have plenty of room in my house."

"I've known that for a long time yet strangely you've never invited me to any room let alone bathroom—not once!"

"You've never disappeared for a year then. And back then we didn't have that bet about treating you to sushi houses all your life. How do you think I can treat you if you were living somewhere far?"

"..."

Silence fell at the two again. An awkward silence.

"Ueda-san... do you mean to tell me...?"

"Uh... I suppose we'll live together for now. Until you're satisfied with your gyōza and sushi then like the bet. Right?"

"Uh yeah... until gyōza and sushi then."

"Gyōza and sushi. Or do you prefer the prize cash?"

"I never said that."

"Hmm. Gyōza and sushi it is then."

~The Real End.~

A/N: No other end can suffice me!

I had endured to understand the last part!

And this is practically how I see things went from there!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed TRICK as much as I did!

Cheers to UEDA and YAMADA! (The eternal soul mates that never hit it on but is still for each other!)

Thank you!