The Tarot Master

Chapter One – Tarot Card 1 The Magician

Characteristics: Represents the beginning, the man in nature before his destiny.

"… in practice the magic art may be employed for the benefit either of individuals or of the whole community… the public magician occupies a position of great influence, from which, if he is a prudent and able man, he may advance step by step to the rank of a chief or king"

The Golden Bough Sir James Frazer

***

Both Nephilim were seated on top of a sky scraper, watching the busy streets of Tokyo below. It was a Friday night, the streets were flooding with traffic and groups of people walking together dressed for a party among carefree chatter. They looked like unsuspecting prey under the scrutiny of two waiting hawks.

"So… where should I go tonight…"

"A new club opened just five blocks south of here." Ishida replied, with his light blue feathered wings being rustled by the breeze. "Might be a good place."

"Why does it always have to be clubs, you know I hate the booming music…"

"It doesn't. They're just more practical. Many women together, many possible potentials, easier to manipulate in case the Fathers get in a hurry to have one of them."

"Common mortals are all easy to manipulate, whatever the circumstance."

"Well, not all Nephilim have it that easy, hence easy circumstances are traditionally sought for. Stop boasting your prowess and lose the bored attitude, it's being a Seeker that has given you the reason to have something to brag about, playing bored with your duty doesn't become you."

He looked at Ishida by the corners of his eyes. "You're a Carrier and you look bored all the time."

"That's because I was assigned to you."

"Che!" Ishida's ever present displays of contempt for him were always amusing for some odd reason. "Why did you quit it? Being a Seeker, I mean. You were a Metal Rune Master, they say you were quite good."

"Don't worry, Kurosaki, I was not as good as you."

"Of course not," that made Ishida roll up his eyes "but that's not what I'm asking. Why did you become a Carrier?"

"I developed the orientation sense through the Severing World, becoming a Carrier was the natural choice."

"That's not true. Many Seekers remain so even after being able to cross the Severing World in between dimensions without a Soul Aegis to transport them. They say you yourself remained a Seeker working without a Carrier for several years, after you gained the orientation sense."

"Carriers are scarce, a Covenant is always in need of them."

"You could still carry prey from other Seekers being a Seeker who can cross worlds without an Aegis."

"What's your point, Kurosaki?"

"My point is there's a reason why you dropped seeking."

"Why wouldn't I."

"Your point being?..."

"My point being it's none of your business."

He chuckled again. "You must miss it. I mean, why else would you still carry your binding cross" upon hearing this, Ishida noticed he was absent-mindedly playing with his bracelet with a silver cross in between his fingers and quickly closed the hand around it "with you, even when only doing Carrier duty?"

"I don't miss it."

"Oh, come on." His lips curved in a smirk. "We are the ones to break the ladies in before our horny heavenly fathers can lay hands on them. They must love a Seeker before being able to love a Covenant. Why become a Carrier and just get to travel them in between worlds?"

"You just proved my point."

"What, that it's none of my business why you don't feast on the love of mortals anymore?..."

"That I don't miss it. If you noticed I still carry my binding cross, if you acknowledge my seeking power was considerable, if you realize I could still do seeking besides carrying – is the fact alone I choose to only carry enough to convince you I don't miss seeking, or do you need me to bind you into a clairvoyance metal rune for better judgment?"

He shrugged his orange feathered wings. "… So… It's none of my business."

"For heaven's sake, Kurosaki, all that binding power within your Tarot deck is surely a compensation for what you lack in wits…"

Kurosaki Ichigo waved a hand dismissively. It made no sense to him why would anyone choose not to bathe in a woman's love, when having the power to do so. He could not find anything more compelling than to feel loved. Would loving be any better? Would the love he can create with his deck be any different from the one that naturally assaults humans sometimes? How lucky would a human be when he's loved for who he is, instead of as a result of a higher power being exerted on one's soul… "… Don't you envy them sometimes?"

Ishida closed his eyes with impatience. "Envy who?"

"Humans."

That surprised Ishida, and he turned to see Ichigo gazing the streets with an uncharacteristic serious expression. "Why would I envy humans?"

"They can love."

"Yes." He narrowed his eyes. "Yes, they can. That's what enables them to be the Fools on your little Tarot deck and not mind being ravaged by you and the group of accursed fallen angels that follows, what is there to envy about that?"

"No… I mean… Humans can love without a Nephilim's power binding them. How special can that be, right? To be loved like that."

"You're spouting nonsense, Kurosaki, which I should know better than to be surprised with. We are loved more times during a lifetime than whole towns of people during a century. If there's anything to be envied in love, we are the ones to be envied for."

"I'm talking about being loved for who we are. A love which isn't a spell."

Ishida sighed and looked at the horizon. "But what is love, but a spell… And we are the spell weavers. That's the order of things."

"The two hundred angels first mated humans without spell weavers, they were loved without a spell."

"No, they didn't have to be loved to begin with. Their mating was done here in the real world, before they lost their wings and were condemned to twenty different dimensions. If not for some of their offspring to have resulted in Nephilim with orientation sense through the Severing World in between – the first Carriers – which later created the Soul Aegis for all Nephilim to be able to cross worlds, the Nephilim race would have been extinct at the end of the first generation's lifetime and the fallen angels' life in captivity would be far more boring, as they can't leave, and no humans can cross over."

Ishida stood up and continued. "Of course, once they tried to bring the first human girls to quench the angels' lust for flesh in doomed captivity and give continuation to the Nephilim race, they had to bear in mind those dimensions grant human souls with nearly godly powers. But the universe is not without balance, hence the Seekers among our race. The ones able to manipulate human souls, bind them with love for them and their Covenant, so they can be impregnated safely."

He paused and looked down at Ichigo. "And there was never a Seeker more powerful than you in all Seiretei's written chronicles, no Nephilim who could bind so quickly nor so effectively, hence you are the most conceited hybrid arse I've ever had the displeasure to be associated with, matching a power that still manages to be overshadowed by an even greater ego with the I.Q. of a rhino, resulting in this remarkable personality which only manages to be charming when you keep your mouth shut."

Ichigo had opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. Not that Ishida's words would ever bother him, but there was something on his tone that sounded different, like casting a new light on the Carrier he worked with for so many years. And like everything new he could find in life, he was welcoming the discovery of this different shade of Ishida.

"Don't speak of love as if you could even grasp the slightest thing about it, Kurosaki. It's like trying to cross the Severing World without a Soul Aegis, you'll just get lost in infinity, you lack the ability to know how to arrive somewhere. You're a Nephilim, a Seeker, a Tarot Master. Your job, your single use of existence is to steal the hearts of fertile young ladies so that our race can survive. It's who you are, it's all you can do. So stick to it."

Ichigo wasn't as dense as Ishida painted him. In fact, behind those big brown eyes, he was sensing clearly the Carrier seemed almost more determined to convince himself of those words than to convince the Seeker he was working with. Something strange definitely happened in Ishida's past, but he knew he wouldn't reveal it, so Ichigo decided to let it be. "What's the name of that club you want me to check out?"

Ishida was surprised by the sudden change of subject. It was the first time his fellow Nephilim looked like having really listened to him. "Soul Society."

"Hah! That's appropriate." And he stood up. "I'll go there first, I'll call you if I end up finding something for you to take back to Seiretei. Don't bother wishing me luck, I carry it on my deck." And he jumped off the building, free falling half way through, then spreading his massive orange wings and turning diagonally, flapping a few times before riding the wind again, heading south. Ishida was right when he said playing bored didn't become him. He loved flying through the night in the real world, wondering who his next prey will be.

Ishida stood there and opened his hand, the silver cross shining in the moonlight. And he sat down again, holding his knees to his chest. "Careful with what you ask for, Kurosaki… It might come true one day… And when you find out about love… you'll find out about hate."