Black Love, Exorcised- Card 11, Jack of Hearts
Snow. White flakes of frozen rain falling delicately onto the Earth's surface in order to purify this dark damned world. It may not mean a lot to the whole world with that small amount, but it means the whole world to that particular person.
Snow. Winter. Fuyu. My name.
This was a dream. And I was the main character for such a twisted plot of fate. A dream. Of course I could remember. I could always feel that eerie sense of coldness every time I starred in my own dream, seizing me tightly like a famished python.
The lady in kimono was kneeling on her knees, crying and begging as she pleaded with another man who reckoned the lady with coolness. Too cool, that it felt heartless like blazing froze, something much worse than snow. That kimono, those soft embroideries of sakura petals, that soothing voice of hers that had been forced an octave higher.
Mom. What was she doing there? Dad was nowhere in sight, was he aware of this? Work, he must be with the orphans now, teaching them as he basked in their innocent laughter.
"I'm not going to hurt her. Just tell me where my granddaughter is."
The man finally spoke. He was a fine Japanese, a nobleman perhaps, with his formal attire and sleek white hair. His gaze was firm on my mother yet full of love, love that I had never seen before. An empty shell one picked up casually on the warm sand of the beach that is so devoid of emotions that one could not even hear the gentle echo of the oceans. That was his sort of love.
My mother cried yet again at the demand. She was powerless against the verbal strength of the old man. His hair was swaying upon the light breeze of the winter wind.
Casual steps took me to the man. I wanted to punch him right on the nose for agonizing my mother in such a way. The old man finally looked up, his eyes fixed upon me. Was he able to see me? My knees shook a little at his loving yet harsh gaze.
"Your husband would be back soon. I will be waiting for your answer," said the man softly in Japanese as his gaze went right past me and back to my mother, "my dear daughter."
Grandfather?
Had he been the man whom my grandmother cried over at night? Had he been the one who abandoned my mother's family and made me grandfather-less? Had he…?
The shriek of my mother sank me back from the land of queries almost immediately. It suddenly struck me that I had seen him before. He was that old guy.
That old guy. Kanda had hated him upon first sight. I had never really wondered who he was, or even wondered why my parents' eyes had creased with worry when I told them about him. I had never thought that he would be my grandfather.
It was just one of those lazy weekdays when the teachers would grant us the hour to bask under the gentle sunlight and play around on the soft grass. The sand was piling high up as the group of young girls giggled in delight. I was one of them, and had been sent away to get some more decorations being the 'designer of the castle'.
He had stopped me, the old man, as he greeted me in Japanese.
My Japanese was still alright since I had been staying here for two years. Nothing fabulous though, anything out of my range would be alien language out of my little dictionary.
His voice was friendly and gentle, like a dove as he bent over to accommodate my height and talked to me.
"Fuyu Nakamura?"
I nodded my head, though confusion flooded that small capacity why he called me by my mother's surname.
The old man chuckled and converted into speaking perfect English. I smiled at the ease of speaking to someone with my familiar tongue, and chatted a little with him. It was one of those little accomplishments that kids enjoyed when they were given the honor to talk about their family. Family pride, they said. I blabbered on. Yeah, granny's fine. That's why I live. Yeah.
Then he did something weird. It was not that I was unhappy, but it made me feel a little upset that my tongue was limited to two and a half language only- English, Chinese, and half Japanese. The old man had begun to speak in a language that was new to my ears, something that I was never exposed before, which I now did- the old Bible language. It made no sense to me at that tender age. And the curly wily streams of foreign language served no help to my interpretation as it ran out of his tongue while placed his fingers on my forehead.
"Oi, what are you doing?" Someone shouted in perfect Japanese.
The old man turned around with a frown on his face that slowly evolved into an amused expression as the two of us discovered that the one who shouted was none other than a young Japanese- Kanda Yuu. I smiled at him though to show that all was fine.
"Ah, your boyfriend?' Pondered the old man aloud, his smile never leaving, "How adoring. I've got to go now, my young child. You were brought up well." Yet before I could send him a farewell too, a kiss from him to my forehead freaked me out. That was, perhaps, too much.
"Oi, you!" shouted Kanda as he begun to charge over, a wooden sword in his hand. "Stupid, don't you know…"
"Stupid Fuyu…"
"Fuyu…"
Huh, since when did Kanda call me by my name?
"Fuyu, wake up!"
My eyes peered open at that. Oh yeah, I was in a dream.
"It's been three hours. Kuro-chan's nowhere in sight," said the voice yet again. Kuro, who was that…? That name just seemed to dangle around my ears. Kuro… Krory!
"Yeah yeah, okay let's go find him," I said, my yawns muffling most of what I was trying to say. The sleep on the train had been comfortable, I thought, as my eyes finally willed themselves to open to the bright sunlight.
A gasp of loud laughter soon escaped from my mouth almost immediately when I saw my Junior, Allen Walker. The young man was sleeping with his head tilted to one side and his face had "Lenalee" written all over it in invisible ink as he drooled a trail of saliva a metre long. Good thing Lavi was unable to read that, or so I thought.
"Wake up, Allen," nagged Lavi as he hit our comrade's head. "Fuyu, you try that direction with Maat, while the two of us search this." He pointed at the other end of the train.
"Okay."
--
The strong scent of tobacco greeted the two as they opened the door to the next carriage. Cheap cigarette though, Allen was able to pick up the grades of tobacco just by sniffing them. Memories of his master crept up to him with a shroud of misery as he recalled how Master would smack him every time he brought home what was deemed as inferior cigarette.
"I'm sorry, but this area is prohibited to young boys."
He had not expected what he was able to see though; three men and a little boy accompanied next to a very much naked Krory whom looked back at the two of them with much guilt as he shivered in the cold weather. Allen's eyes were drawn almost immediately to what they were surrounding.
Scattered poker cards, like shattered memories dug up unwillingly, lying on the wooden planks of the train. Poker cards, those 56 of them, his long lost friends. An evil thought sent its tentacles slowly up to the little lad's head and engulfed him.
"This cloak which is made of pure silver, along with Krory's clothes, would be placed as bets. Count me in."
"Allen-kun," gasped Lavi as the evil aura from Allen affected him too.
The men received the boy with much amused enthusiasm, as they parted a small gap to accommodate the two exorcists. The grins engraved on the three men's faces were getting wider as the cards were reshuffled by the gloved hands of the white-haired boy.
-Knock
The group of players took no notice as someone knocked on the carriage door, their attention limited to the playing cards of red and black.
-Knock
"Come in," said the man in the middle as he grunted with his cancer stick in his mouth. His eyes had stayed on with the boy and his fanciful shuffling of the cards, yet his mind redirected his attention to the new visitor. Another player perhaps?
"Add her as another bet, boy," said the man smugly, as smoke curled down his throat like a leech to a bare skin.
"What?"
The sudden exclamation and request sent the group of male hormones to stare at the intruder. A young lady with a charcoal brown hair that curled a little at its tail stared back with glaring black eyes at the offending man. Her mouth was suppressed with anger as she spitted her words out with contempt.
The man in thick glasses only smiled at the female exorcist in amusement and drifted his attention back to the group. "You didn't hear me? I said 'add her as another bet, boy'."
Allen's eyes danced dangerously in its evil sea and nodded his head. "Sure," he replied.
"My dear Junior," whispered the female exorcist with much withheld anger and disbelief, "you're sick of your life, right?" Betting was illegal at his age, much said about betting on a human, or her. Visions of brightly endorsed vocabulary shone through the cabin with all its might to shoot the young man. Even Lavi was shocked. "Are you out of your mind? Yuu-chan's sure to stick his mugen down your throat!"
"Who's that?" queried the man in thick glasses yet again as the toxic fume from his cigarette lingered down his throat yet again, this time like a question mark as he shifted his gaze on the crimson-hair lad. His friends laughed in correspond and cheered in wolfish delight. "Shh, I'm not sharing."
"Who? Yuu-chan? Fuyu's boyfriend, duh," answered Lavi with much intended innocence that invited a scorning Fuyu.
An 'hmm' crawled out from the man's mouth as he watched, a little cross-eyed, at the toxic signals his cancer stick sent out.
Fuyu's mouth dropped open in distain. "Pedophiles, I'm getting out of the here,' she said with a slight tremble of disgust as she begun to unbutton her exorcist coat to drape it over a shivering Krory who muttered a 'thanks' while the other men wolf-whistled in victory. Tolerance, she mumbled to herself, as she opened the door yet again to leave the place. The last thing she wanted was to send Maat down on that thick-spectacles-geek wannabe.
"Hey miss," yelled someone whose voice was much softer and higher as he trailed her, his small fingers grasping hers. Fuyu turned around to find the little boy who had been in the room with the three men grabbing on to her finger. "They are actually not like that…" he defended, his eyes sparkling with childhood innocence. An uncontrollable urge to pat his soft brown hair touched her. 'Why would such a kid be with them?' she contemplated as she walked down the train with the young kid in hand.
--
"Sorry. Leave this out," said the geek wannabe as he swung his necklace over to his back even as they sat on the cold wooden floor stark naked.
Allen casted a doubt over the action but agreed anyway. Probably something precious to him passed on from his mother or something.
-Knock
"Hey, are you all done?" asked a voice as the person knocked on the door.
Fuyu Black.
A smirk crept over the bespeculated man's lips as he speculated the face of the female exorcist turning a bashful shade of sakura pink when she saw the bareness of their body. A chuckle came out of his throat as he directed his words to the lady, his voice teasing. There was no need for him to mask his voice- she would not be able to recognize him anyway. "Sorry lady, I've tried my best." He chuckled yet again when her face wrinkled in disgust at his comment.
-Berg Mines
"Well, that's our stop!"
Fuyu Black.
The image of her crossing her arms over her cross-studded chest and suppressed lips engraved a deep impression of her and her companions in his mind. The goodbye was a sincere one, and the gift of cards a heartwarming one.
Sayonara, Fuyu.
--
I've been thinking about the way you really move me
And I've been thinking about the love
Darling I've been thinking about the way we are together
It's me and you
We're pulling through
No matter what they say
'Cause you give me joy
And being together feels so good
I want to thank you for the chance
To live this life like you should and you know
That you give me joy
You're all I ever want to know
So thank you
Thank you
You bring me my joy
--
A/N: A light-hearted chapter with more Allen in it done! More elaboration on Fuyu and yep- the reason why she detests pedophiles. :D Please do R&R- love(: and i edited Chapter 10 to add stuff.
Song: Joy- Mika Nakashima (this lively tune really suited this chapter)
Next Chapter: Full Noah Time :D