. . . means uncertainty.

"Tut, tut child! Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."

"Do you smell something?"

"It's you, idiot!"

"No, I swear, it smells like human!"

"Eh, you're smelling things."

Saika stumbled upon a group of squatting humanoid demons in a manufactured forest clearing. They sat on tree stumps that they appeared to have recently crafted.

She felt it appropriate to call them humanoid, because they looked to walk on two legs, though they had other, stranger features (i.e. horns, beaks, scales, etc).

With clubs and swords set beside them, they had all kinds of foreign meat set on the cut trees, like a crude sort of dinner table.

Furthermore, they didn't look all too scary. More, silly.

"Well, boys, a toast to another successful raid!" The largest one said aloud, whose nose was large and whose head was decked with a peculiar headdress with cards folded into it. He had folds of fleshy red fat falling over his sheath dress.

Instead of lifting glasses, though, they held decapitated heads up by their hair and began to sip the blood from the misplaced necks.

Saika had to hold her mouth to keep from vomiting, but a clear gagging noise came from her throat and all of the demons turned to look in her direction.

"What's that, there?" one amongst them called out.

"I've got it," a skinny, long-eared one with wispy whiskers unsheathed he sword and assured them.

With her arms held up in front of her, Saika emerged from the wood.

"I thought I smelled something!" a small, rat-like demon expressed.

"Dibs!" one of the demons shouted, and the others began to argue, gathering up their weapons for a deliciously rare kill.

"Now, men. . ." The hatted one said quietly. "Will you all shut up! Oh!" And as though he never had yelled so murderously, he pulled a notebook from his pocket and wrote something down.

There was silence among them as he wrote, then hid his notebook again.

"We couldn't treat a fleshy little human that way, could we? She's just joining our party, there's no need for haste. Here, why don't you sit with us and have a drink?" he offered kindly.

There was something suspicious in his voice, Saika thought, but maybe that was because there was blood on his lips.

"There's no room for her kind here!" A reptilian one shouted.

"No room!" A few others echoed.

"Did I tell you to shut up?" their leader demanded. "Really, now, that's no way to treat a lady. Come and sit, dear."

The demons resettled themselves, but Saika remained frozen where she was.

"Didn't he tell you to sit?" The long-eared one hissed. Looking at him warily as she approached and sat down, Saika couldn't help but see him as rabbit like, though he was anything but cute.

"So what're you doing, here, girl?" the leader asked.

"I- I don't know."

"Ah, you've been spirited away," he concluded knowingly. "Here! Take a drink." He threw a bloody head that landed in front of her on their crude table.

"Come now, be polite!"

To this, Saika had no response. The leader leered at her for a while, and she had no idea how to interpret his look.

"Oh!" he repeated himself from before, pulling out a notepad and writing something down.

"He thinks he's something of a writer," a beaked fish demon leaned over and said to Saika as he gestured with his thumb.

"But getting inspired in the heat of battle doesn't help," the rabbit-looking demon complained.

"We have our dinner, don't we?" the leader asked flippantly.

"We could have a feast!" the rabbit demon shouted.

"We could have a feast. . ." The rat-looking one, with scarily pointed teeth, eyed Saika covetously.

"Now, we haven't properly introduced ourselves!" the leader called all of them to attention, and Saika was glad to have the most of their eyes off of her. "This is my name."

The fat, hatted one took out his notepad and wrote the word "Hata" on it for her.

"It's like that, only you pronounce like you say 'splatter'. That's what they call me, Blood Hata."

"No, they don't."

"Remember what we said about shutting up?"

He then wrote the word "Hai", and gestured to the long-eared one. "Say it the same way."

She tried the both of their names on her tongue and found something strange. Before she could speak, the rat called out, "Hey, what about us? I'm-"

"You'll be important when you start pulling your weight in battle!" Hata boomed.

Everyone else remained frozen until he asked, "Now what's your name, human?"

"Ota," Saika whispered, feeling her last name the best choice.

"What was that? Speak up!" Hata ordered after taking a deep drink of blood. He spat some from his mouthful onto her.

Recoiling in disgust, Saika nearly squealed, "Ota!"

"That's better. Ota! What a strange name! You humans and your vowels."

"I'm surprised you haven't been eaten by a kemushi yet! They molt this time of year," Hai spoke casually wiping his mouth.

"Hey, are you gonna eat that?" The rat demon pointed to the decapitated head before Saika, and she shook her attached head vigorously 'no'.

The buck-toothed rat grabbed the head from before her, and after taking a deep drink, began to chew into the neck.

Upon seeing her expression of abject horror, the rat demon asked defensively, "What?"

"Don't you see you've insulted our guest!" Hata shouted.

"No, no," Saika assured him, but before she could say anything else, Hata took the pen he had written with, and stabbed the begging rat demon in the neck. He fell off of his stump and the rest of them went on eating as though nothing had happened.

Their madness on dawned Saika. Cold and calculating was one thing, but she couldn't handle crazy.

It took all of her self control not to turn tail and run, because she knew well that she couldn't outrun them. But if all of the denizens of Demon World were as sparingly sane as that demon band, she feared how long she would last. The confidence she had before shriveled.

"Root of liverwort for ink," Hai nodded knowingly. "Does the job, all right. So about those kemushi-"

"Kemushi!" The repitilian demon shouted. "They're nothing! You get a charun after you, and then you're in trouble!"

"What- what are those?" Saika asked timidly.

"Kemushi are caterpillar demons that live for only a week. They go into cocoons halfway through and come out to feast on any living things they can find. They're pretty harmless in their segmented form, but once they metamorphose, they're really dangerous."

"One killed my brother, you know," a beaked demon added.

"I- I think- I saw one of those."

"You did? But how?" the reptilian questioned.

"It was going into its cocoon."

"Not good, then you know who'll it'll come after once it's molted!" Hai said, looking sadistically pleased.

"And- what's a charun?" Saika desired a change of subject.

"Charuns are giant birds that stay live by families and swallow up anything they can. But once they set their sights on a prey, they never let them go!" the reptilian told her.

"Wait," Saika began, and they all turned to her. Cautiously she asked, "Do those have. . . red eyes?"

The reptilian nodded.

"And huge wings?

He nodded.

"And long talons? And grey and white feathers?"

They all looked at each other.

"So, you've seen a charun, have you?" Hata asked with bubbling delight.

"I- I fought it and beat it."Somewhere in her mind, Saika thought this would put her further into the demons' good graces, which at that time seemed like a good idea.

After hearing this, a moment of silence passed, and the most of the demons began to laugh.

"There's- there's no way!"

"A little girl like you!"

"Hahaha! That's the best thing I've heard all day!"

A fist came down on the table. Tensely, they all looked to Hata.

"You fools would do good to not overestimate your understanding." He wiped his mouth slowly and they all stared.

"Why. . ." he began. Then a few moments of silence passed.

Hai leaned forward to hear what his leader had to say. All of the subordinates widened their eyes, as though it might help them understand.

Saika immediately realized that she had not been masking her energy. It hadn't occurred to her in such a strange setting.

This revelation came to her as Hata opened his mouth and said in the gravest tone, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Most of the demons seemed to fall out of their seats.

"Are you serious?"

"I thought you were gonna say something really important!"

"Come on! Another riddle?" Hai put his palm to his face in disappointment. "You try too hard to be artistic."

"But wait," Hata spoke slyly and put his finger up. "This one has a point."

He cleared his throat and all were silent again.

"If you can tell me why a raven is like a writing desk," Hata said as he looked into Saika's eyes, "then you'll know why you're here."

All of the demon band looked to Saika.

"Tell me, Ota, why are you here?"

"I- I don't know. I came here by accident."

"That's not so," he assured her as he folded his arms and shook his head.

"How do you figure that?" Hai asked on Saika's behalf.

"Because, if she were a normal girl, the sort of human we could kill with no trouble, wouldn't you have been put out by the toxin in the atmosphere?"

"Oh. . ."

"I hadn't thought of that. . ."

"Yeah, 'cause most humans pass out immediately, who get spirited away. . ."

"Of course, now here's the question. What exactly brings you here, girl?" Hata leaned his elbow on his knee and stared at Saika.

They waited for an answer, but she didn't give them one.

"Yes, that's the question, you know." Hata concluded, as if the question were its own answer. "Now, why is a raven like a writing desk?"

"I- I don't know."

"Hahaha, see? Now neither of us has got an answer!"

Hai shouted in irritation, "You said you had a point!" But Hata ignored him.

In an uncomfortable contact, Hata slapped Saika with too much force on the back.

"You've really got no idea what's going on!" Thankfully, Hata took his arm and pulled a card off of his hat. "So this is your answer right here, girl."

It didn't go unnoticed by Saika that the whole of the demon band seemed to recoil on sight of the card.

Hata held it in front of her, and she analyzed the archaic red decor on the card's back.

"You know, we're not all brawn here, Ota. To survive in this world, you've got to have some magic on your side." In something Saika hoped was an under-the-sleeve trick, Hata rubbed the card between his fingers to reveal several more cards.

He spread those cards on the table and there appeared even more cards, a near deck full. He pulled them back together again and casually shuffled them in the air, flipping them back and forth between his hands.

"I think you might be familiar with this kind of incantation. Have you ever heard of tarot cards?"

Saika nodded slowly.

"Humans like to replicate these and pretend to give meaning to them, but it takes a lot of practice to make them really work." He set the deck on the log before him, then spread the cards out over each other. "Take your pick."

Instead, Saika looked warily at the other demons, who wouldn't meet her eyes.

"But, why-"

"It's important you learn. Even seemingly meaningless things have purpose," Hata spoke in a suddenly menacing tone. "Stupid riddles, random coincidences. . . there's a theory to chaos, you know. A method to the madness. Some people are afraid of knowing what will happen, what the meaning of those things are. They deny Fate. But I take pride in it."

Saika looked on, terrified, and could have sworn that his eyes darkened.

"We're the same that way, aren't we, Ota? So why don't you just pick a card. You get three cards, and though you mightn't realize it, you're compelled by your spiritual conscious to pick the cards that symbolize your past, your present, and your future. So the first one you pick can't hurt you anymore."

Slowly, Saika pulled a random card out of the line as the demons held their breath.

Hata flipped it over, and revealed a drawn picture of a woman in blue robes.

"Ah, The High Priestess. I was right about you." Hata pick up the card and held it in between his fingers. "The Priestess means secret knowledge, and unrevealed wisdom. It's an upright card, meaning without darkness. You've had secrets, isn't that right, Ota?"

Saika didn't need to say anything for Hata to see the answer on her face.

"Well, then. . ." he set the card face up before her on the log. "Care to draw another?"

Though her better instinct told her not to, Saika's eagerness for the cards and herself forced her to take another one without thought.

She couldn't help but realize that fortune telling had nothing to do with how a raven related to a writing desk, but she realized at that point that there probably was a method to Hata's madness.

In the same way as before, Hata turned over the card. "The Hanged Man."

"What does that mean?" Saika asked, her curiosity making her braver.

"It means presently you're going through rebirth, for a worth-while cause."

For a moment Saika was filled with confidence, as though she had meaning in her demonic endeavor.

"Well?" Hata asked. "Don't you want to know what's going to happen?"

Saika reached out before she could stop herself and hesitated over a card in the center. At the last moment she drew a final card from the end of the line, holding it up herself.

"What is it?" Hata asked, a smirk evident on his face.

"I wouldn't tell him if I were you," a dark voice rang from seemingly everywhere throughout the trees.

"Who's there!" All of the demons stood with their drawn weapons.

With some sudden slashes by an invisible fighter, the throats of many of the demons were slit immediately.

Saika knew.

"Come out and fight!" Hata shouted, throwing another tarot card from his hat toward a blur of motion he saw. Surprisingly, it penetrated the wood and stuck into the tree.

The short man in the black cloak stood in front of Hata and Hai, as the remaining demons dropped their weapons and fled.

"Idiots!" Hai called after them.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you not to play with your food?" he asked, then leapt and sliced Hai across the chest. "It'll get cold."

"This is none of your business, Three-Eyes!" Hata, the only one left alive, remained aggressive.

"It just so happens that this human is my responsibility for the moment. And I bet you were going to feel so clever. Whatever card she drew, you were going to say, 'it mean Death', right?"

Hata defensively shouted, "-no such thing!"

But Hiei continued. "I know your type. Posers like you can't resist a good punchline. Well, here's one."

With that, Hiei leapt and in an instant, feigned to slice through Hata's neck. When he moved to block, Hiei bashed him over the head with the blunt of his sword, knocking off Hata's headpiece.

"Not today, cretan. The next time you decide to play a game of Fate, play solitaire." With that, he pierced Hata in the stomach, and the weaker demon fell limp.

Instead of expressing surprise, Saika continued staring wide-eyed at her second-time savior. A solid opinion of him refused to take form.

"And you. Didn't your mother ever tell you never to trust an oracle?"

Surprisingly, she responded, "Didn't yours ever tell you not to steal?"

"No, actually," he darkly smiled a sort of grimace. "What's got you so bold? Are you thinking that I'm really so scared to let you die?"

"That's not what I was thinking at all," Saika answered blankly.

Then, for the umpteenth time, Hiei pressed his psychic strength against Saika's mind and got nothing.

There was no way for him to tell what she was thinking. A flare of rage went off within him.

Pointing his sword at her, he shouted, "Make no mistake! The next time you decide to have a tea party with a D-class pack of mongrels, don't expect me to come and save you!"

"I would expect something like that." She paused, then added, "I just want my journal back."

Hiei's face twisted into a smirk. "Then you'll just have to take it back."

He expected her to look for her journal on his person, but instead she looked at the tarot card still in her hand. Again, he was angered by his inability to read her.

"Realize that I didn't kill those demons. And it seems to me like you've got a lot of things coming after you already, so you'd better enjoy your head start."

Deliberately, Saika ignored him, and asked, "'The Tower'. What does that mean?"

Snorting in disrepute, Hiei said, "If you honestly trust in something as contrived as fortune-telling, it's whatever you delude yourself to believe. 'Fate' is for fools and Ice Maidens."

Saika opened her mouth to express her belief in those cards, especially with the accuracy of the other two, but she instead sealed her lips and analyzed the unusually hard paper in her hands.

When she looked up again, Hiei was gone.

The Tower, in major arcana tarot reading, means change, conflict, and violent loss.