theme: letter, news

The heat is unbearable.

It literally beats down on him through the window, and he wants to take off his jacket so he won't suffocate (even at so fine a school, air conditioning is a new innovation and it is broken). Then, he could feel it on his sticky skin and though he would be risking sunburn, that would be preferable.

He is emperor, though, so he sits like a statue in his desk, frozen and unmoving. Disbelieving. In a nightmare.

I'm taking this news so very well, he thought to himself, without even a trace of irony.

Emperor –

Kamiya Kazuhito has challenged your postion, and is calling for a movement against you.

He wants to seize your position.

- Katsuro

Thirty agonizing minutes have passed since he's received it.

Katsuro stands nervously before him, and Itsuki's eyes move up from the paper to his assistant's pale face.

"He's challenging my position?"

"Yes, Emperor."

"On terms of trust?"

"Yes."

"Explain, please."

Katsuro takes a deep breath, despite the mild tone of Itsuki's voice. He's been working as Itsuki's aid for years now – part of an up-and-coming but not-quite-there family.

If there is anyone supposed he could trust in the power struggle that was about to crash through the school, then he supposes Katsuro was as good as any. Maika didn't count, he thought quickly to himself, because this had nothing to do with her and, he was going to keep her out of it anyway.

"Kamiya-san wants to usurp your position, Emperor." He glances at a single, uncrumpled, paper in his hands. "He's citing lack of, and he's asking for an election. I would say a 're-election, but Emperors are not voted into their office."

There was quiet while Itsuki thought.

He almost forgot that he was sweating.

"Then we'll have to beat him at his own game," Itsuki said finally, quietly, mildly, just as he had spoken before.

He professionally clasped his red-with-heat hands and that was that.

"What's distracting you?" she whispers to him in the hallway one day.

Two classes later, as he's walking up the podium, he manages a whisper in reply: "It's nothing. Don't worry."

She worries anyway.

He knows.

"How are things looking, Katsuro-san?"

"The people don't want a change. They see no reason to elect you out of office – after all, you're their Gold."

Itsuki, despite himself, feels pleased and comforted by their faith.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Please, Maika, don't worry for me."

"The numbers speak well, emperor. There's no need to worry."

"Itsuki…"

"… Will from now on be known only as a Silver."

Shock fills him. Shock fills him so there is no room for anger at Kazuhito's betryal or Katsuro's lies, for rage or for sorrow. He has fallen. He has fallen from the throne that he thought was granted to him, the only Gold – invincible, unrivaled – and he has fallen to – fallen to nothing, fallen to…

"Kamiya Kazuhito will be known as the new Gold."

It is Katsuro who reads this, with seeming strength in his voice. Bravado, Itsuki realizes, because he alone hears and sees the shake in Katsuro's voice and knees, as Katsuro calls Kazuhito's name and bends down respectfully to his new emperor.

Kazuhito nods. He is ice as he always is, seemingly stoic and now, Itsuki discovers, cold-blooded. What motivation would he have to steal Itsuki's birthright? Did he only do it because he could?

Kazuhito, the only person Itsuki could really relate to.

Kazuhito, his only [unsure friend.

Kazuhito, the traitor.

Kazuhito, the Gold, walks to the podium as Itsuki stands mute in shock.

"I have a new policy I would like to instill."

Quiet falls over the cheering crowd of students, and Itsuki listens from a world away. His thoughts are frozen and slow moving in another time and place.

"I would like to create a position that is beneath Gold, but above Silver."

Itsuki is weakly tugged back to the here and now. He feels a tinge of disgust. Is Kazuhito going to rub salt in his would by making false amends, granting him this position? If he does, then Itsuki will have to…

"My new platinum will be Rikyuu Maika."

…die.

Maika.

Maika.

What was Kazuhito playing at?

A silence has fallen. Maika walks to the stage with a painful reluctance.

There is something about the way he said 'my' that Itsuki does not like at all.

Itsuki walks into the Emperor's office one last time. It is his until five o' clock this afternoon. That is what the school director said, in tones that were polite but not respectful. And that is all that he said, before turning his back on Itsuki to shake Kazuhito's hand.

He opens the door.

Before he can register anything, Maika is there, and she jumps at him, sobbing. She nearly knocks him over with her weight, and he holds her. The situation comes back to him. His grip tightens. She cries, cries, cries, for he-doesn't know long.

Kazuhito has bought her off. Forced her to be his.

Her sobs slow, and finally, she loosens her hold. She looks into his eyes before closing her own and kisses him lightly, but he continues to hold on to her.

"I have to go now," she says, with the broken voice of one who has become weary and worn with weeping.

"Stay," he whispers into her hair. She smells good. He can't discern exactly what she smells like. Maybe some kind of flower. He wants to know. He wants to know everything about her now, because after now there will never be another time for these kinds of questions.

But he doesn't ask.

She lets him go with one last look, and the tears in her eyes make him hate the world for making her cry like this. For ripping him apart like this.

(It's too much for him to handle. Too much for comfort.)

She's gone.

Through a daze, he walks to his desk and gathers his things. When he is finished, he notices a typed up memo on the desk. He picks it up and reads it.

Otomiya Itsuki –

I hope that you have gathered up your things. I ask on behalf of the Emperor that you leave your office by 3:00 this afternoon. I regret that you must leave sooner than the school director requested of you. I hope this does not put any constraint on your valuable time.

- Cordially, Maeda Katsuro