CHAPTER 15: CHECK(MATE), PLEASE!
"I'm just saying, a stalemate is far better than a win!"
The cards that greeted them on the small coffee table that day were white, gray and red with the words 'win,' 'stalemate' and 'loss' written on them, respectively. They immediately agreed to remove the red card from the running. Neither of them saw the point in arguing in favor of loss, though Kyoko had to admit it would've made for an equally challenging debate.
At least Maria seemed to be done with throwing in a strange word that never fit the motif of the other two.
"In what world could that possibly be true?" Kuon challenged her with arms folded across his chest.
"Look, not everything requires a definitive winner and loser," Kyoko reasoned. "A stalemate means both sides did their absolute best and are evenly matched."
"Or one side made a mistake and gave away a crucial advantage."
"The same could be said for a win-loss situation too, you know."
It was around then that Kyoko noticed Maria was trying to get their attention while pointing at the clock on the wall. Apparently, their time for the day was up.
She licked her lips with adversarial glee and turned a taunting pout on Kuon, "It looks like we'll have to finish here today. Which is a shame, since that would mean we ended on a—"
"Don't you even dare say it."
"Stalemate," she hissed in a stage whisper.
"No. No way," Kuon huffed in irritation, getting up from his chair. "My schedule is clear for the rest of the day, so I have plenty of time to bring this argument to its logical conclusion."
"Which would be?" She prompted.
"You admitting that I'm right."
Kyoko could only scoff and roll her eyes.
"You two are free to continue your discussion," Maria chimed in. "However, you'll have to find another place to do it. My daughter is visiting and I'm supposed to meet her in twenty minutes."
She watched Kuon's mouth twist into a thoughtful pout for almost a minute before it stretched out into a dangerous grin. She nearly reeled backwards at the sight of it when it was turned, full force, on her. Her first instinct was to protest, but she kept her mouth clamped shut and waited for his intentions to be revealed. Fortunately—or perhaps not—she didn't have to wait long.
"We could always go back to that diner around the corner. It'll be just like old times." He actually had the audacity to wink at her as he said it.
Now, the appropriate course of action in that moment would be to carefully assess the situation in which they'd both placed themselves. Of course, that's the exact opposite of what happened. Ever the dutiful slave to her own emotions, Kyoko ignored the opportunity for a snarky quip in favor of accepting the challenge placed before her.
"You're on."
His grin only widened.
"But," she was quick to add. "I get to pick the place."
Once Kuon nodded in agreement, the two of them hastily threw on their overcoats and left the room quipping back and forth without so much as a formal goodbye to Maria. They were so absorbed in their exchange that they completely missed the expression of the older woman. Had she been anyone else, she might have gaped in shock and awe. But, being who she was, the smug knowing smile stretched across her face was a given and not out of place at all.
The quiet, triumphant cackle that followed once the door closed behind the pair certainly wasn't either.
Kyoko chose a different restaurant that was only a few blocks further away for their battleground. It was tempting to go along with Kuon's suggestion mostly due to the close proximity, but she resisted for two main reasons. One, his irritating confidence triggered her stalwart contrarianism and she felt honor-bound to contradict him. And, two, she really didn't want to associate that particular diner with any more unpleasantness. Amazing fries, yes, but not so amazing memories.
The city was full of noise and activity, as it usually was at that time in the early evening. Cars rumbled past on their journey homeward, slowed by the volume of every other vehicle on the road. Music of all sorts could be heard coming from a variety of sources, backed by the percussive sound of hundreds of feet moving along the sidewalks. Of course, it could have been silent as the grave and neither of the two of them would have noticed as their argument continued during the walk to the restaurant and all the way through their drink and meal orders. It wasn't until they were several bites into their respective dinners that Kyoko finally looked at what they were doing with a critical eye. Well, at least, part of it. The other ridiculously obvious bit had not yet registered.
"Wait, why are we even doing this?"
"Because I've accepted the challenge of correcting your misguided notions," he offered, wrinkling his nose.
She shook her head. "No, I mean, what's the point of us continuing to argue when we were only prompted to do so by a meddling older witch and some index cards? Here we are, bickering as if our lives depended on it with only enough breaks in between to eat our food which, I might add, is rapidly cooling past the point of being enjoyable."
Kuon looked down at his mostly full plate. "Oh."
"This is about as…" She struggled to find an appropriate metaphor. "As fruitful as trying to explain to a group of normies that studying magic is nothing like it's described in that popular book series from decades ago."
His hand froze on it's way to his mouth with a forkful of food.
"Wait, people still believe that?!"
"Oh, you have no idea how many times I've been asked why I don't wear robes or use a wand," she punctuated her sentence with a groan. "And don't even get me started on the whole duelling thing."
A sympathetic wince twisted his face while he chewed and swallowed.
"I'll admit, it's been some time since I've talked at length with anyone who wasn't a part of the magic community but I guess I shouldn't be surprised." He shrugged. "Those who lack the aptitude for magical studies pretty much just file it away in a box labelled 'mysterious but impressive-sounding jobs' right alongside astrophysics and brain surgery."
"Their heads would probably explode if they knew some of us actually specialize in working with astrophysicists and brain surgeons."
"Good thing there's brain surgeons to help put them back together then."
Her snort soon transformed into full laughter that she tried to hide behind one hand. She caught him looking far too pleased with himself and it reminded her of the version of him she used to know. That sobered her up enough to truncate her last guffaw with a cough.
"So, does that mean you spend all of your time at your coven at home?"
"It's the unfortunate result of being born into a family that's only ever had careers in magic." He nodded with an over-dramatized, put-upon sigh. "There was a time when I had regular contact with the 'outside world' as it were but it … didn't end well."
Kyoko continued to eat and waited in silence for him to explain, but he said nothing further. The murmur of the conversations taking place around them, peppered intermittently with the crash of plates and the sizzle of searing meat every time the kitchen door opened into the dining room filled the space between until she gave up with a hollow chuckle.
"I feel like I could almost apply the opposite scenario to myself.
Kuon frowned in confusion. "But you're attending a university for magic studies."
"I am," she confirmed. "And I work part-time at a shop that sells magic supplies. I couldn't escape the magic community if I tried at this point; not that I'd want to. And yet, it seems like the more I assimilate myself into it, the more trouble I find myself in."
The man sitting across from her seemed to go through a series of false starts and stops as his mouth opened and then abruptly closed before any sound could come out. He eventually gave up with a shake of his head.
"I think I'm going to refrain from commenting on that since we both know exactly where it would lead and we'd be here all night."
She couldn't stop her lips from curling upward. "A wise decision."
"I thought so." His expression mirrored hers before he dug back into his plate. "We're better off saving it for whatever Maria subjects us to tomorrow."
"At least it's the last day."
It was the last day, wasn't it? The thought hadn't occurred to her until she actually spoke the words. Kyoko didn't know exactly what that meant for her, or for him for that matter. She didn't want to think about it either. Their entire situation got stranger by the day and she'd actively started resisting any attempts her brain made to process everything. It wasn't as if she'd forgotten what Maria told her that day in the cafeteria, though sometimes she wished she had. The real issue was that she couldn't fathom confessing any feelings to someone she knew so little about. Kuon wasn't the man she—
Now that she thought about it, she didn't know that much about Ren either. He'd offered her a chance for them to get better acquainted before making her decision but her mistrust of his feelings pushed her to bring things to a swift end rather than suggesting they wait a little longer. It was, as she told herself time and again, all her fault.
Before she could launch herself into a full spiral of despair, his voice brought her speeding train of thought to a screeching halt.
"And only a couple of days after that until I get to go back home."
She settled back into the flow of their conversation and let it distract her from her negative thoughts.
"I bet you can't wait."
"Well, yes and no," he admitted. "My parents promised I could blame them if I had an awful time here, but I'm not sure how to spin the fact that I got to be the research subject for a living legend into something bad."
"I think the fact that the research involved you insulting—and being insulted by—a complete stranger might work in your favor."
He laughed as his fork scraped a path through the vegetables on his plate. "You give my parents entirely too much credit. It's more likely that they'd ask to meet you."
She frowned. "To yell at me?"
"To meet the one person who continually tries to put their son in his place. I mean, you've met me; that's not an easy feat."
"I don't know if I should be offended that you said I only try." She wanted to sound resentful, but her efforts were corrupted.
"Oh, darling, one should always strive to improve," he said in his best imitation of Maria's voice while flicking an imaginary lock of curly hair behind him. "Don't you agree?"
Maybe they were both tired, maybe they were both a little delirious from spending so much time around each other doing nothing but quarreling, but they both dissolved into a puddle of giggles. Breathing became just about as challenging as trying to keep food in her mouth between chortles. It got to the point that they couldn't look at each other and continue eating as the moment they locked eyes, the hysterics would begin anew.
They spent the rest of their dinner perfecting their impressions of Maria while giving each other constructive criticism that ranged anywhere from adding a lilt to their voice to the proper placement of their hands. Eventually, their plates were emptied and cleared from the table, their bills were settled and they were bundled back into their outerwear and leaving the restaurant.
Still riding the high of their hilarious antics (to them, at least), he asked if she was alright getting home by herself and she assured him she was. Then they bid each other the most amicable farewell in the history of their odd acquaintance. All that is to say that it wasn't until Kyoko had returned home, settled into the warmth of her bed and was just on the cusp of sleep that she finally, finally realized it.
They'd literally argued their way into a date with each other.
Much as she wanted to deny it, it was a date. It ticked all of the generic boxes one usually finds under said heading. He'd suggested they get a meal together and she accepted. They talked and laughed and generally had a pleasant time. He even asked if she wanted him to walk her home.
It invaded her thoughts all through that night and into the following day when Maria greeted them with her usual measure of exuberance upon their arrival. But something was different. Kyoko, still distracted, couldn't put her finger on it at first and decided it was probably due to the older woman trading her usual sartorial palette of blacks, reds and violets for a daring shade of tarnished gold. It was a flattering choice, she had to admit, but something told her this wasn't exactly the answer she was looking for.
"I can't believe it's our last day together," Maria lamented, making a show of wiping away a non-existent tear. "I'm going to miss this time together with you two. Won't you?"
"Absolutely, there's nothing I've enjoyed nothing more in my time here than going tête-à-tête with Kyoko for the sake of science," Kuon joked in a deadpan fashion while somehow throwing in a salacious eyebrow waggle.
"It's not my fault you never tried to find anything more interesting to do," Kyoko grumbled, refusing to meet his eyes.
"I think this was plenty interesting on its own."
"I don't want to know what dictionary you got your definition of 'interesting' from."
Further witty exchanges were put on hold by the sound of Maria's laughter. She shook her head at the two of them while her shoulders trembled with mirth.
"We have work to do, darlings," she reminded them, missing the look Kyoko exchanged with Kuon and the muffled snort that followed. "You can flirt on your own time."
Once she successfully fought back the burning sensation in her cheeks, Kyoko admonished herself for being distracted earlier by the woman's fashion choices. The true reason behind the barely perceptible change in the witch's demeanor was finally revealed, much to the chagrin of her research subjects. While she was all smiles and excited explanations, the other two were mostly silent disbelief and betrayal. And it wasn't just because of her words. In her hands she held three more cards, but these cards were not new. Kyoko could see the traces of light creases and crinkles where the corners had begun to fold in on themselves.
The cards were blue, purple and red and the sight of them had Kyoko's stomach doing all manner of gymnastic maneuvers. She looked over at Kuon to see the color drained from his face. He stared, open-mouthed at the cards Maria held. His left hand hung limp, partially raised in the air in a sort of limbo as to whether or not it wanted to ask a question or point accusingly.
"Yes, these are the unused cards from the last three sessions," she confirmed, reading their expressions. "And, no, you will not be allowed to select one to discard this time."
A strangled noise left Kyoko and she remained frozen where she stood, every thought that had been swirling through her mind was blown clear away. Kuon, fortunately, was not immobilized by the threatening cards and took them from Maria without a word before stalking off. She was close behind him after two slow blinks seemed to free her from her affliction.
They sat in their usual chairs and he placed the cards on the table between them, letting the edges hit the surface with a snap. Kyoko wanted to look away, but knew it wouldn't make them truly disappear. The handwritten words of 'friends,' 'love' and 'loss' taunted her from where they lay on the table. So, she just stared at them with no idea where to begin.
Kuon must have noticed this and the overwhelming sense of dread she already felt was only compounded when the next words he spoke registered in her ears.
"Well, we can sit here all afternoon in silence or we can just rip the bandage off. So, I guess I'll go first," he began. "I lost my best friend several years ago and I'd convinced myself for a long time that his death was my fault."
OH, HEY, YOU'RE STILL HERE! While I do have several good excuses for my absence, they're not important right now. I'm back. I'm writing. And that's all that matters!
Anyway, Happy New Year and best wishes for 2020! How are you all? Did you have a good holiday?
I think I got one ask while I was away so here goes:
Persephone Jinmi asked: What is your favorite type of cat?
Is rescue cat a valid answer? If so, that's probably the best I can do on that one. I'm mostly an equal opportunity cat lover. Except for maybe when it comes to those sphynx cats… I have a hard enough time touching raw poultry. I don't know what I'd do if it actually moved and meowed at me.
Also, that new manga chapter, yo! Never in my life have I had the pleasure and anguish to be both absurdly delighted as well as dreading whether or not the end is drawing near because, seriously, what am I going to do with my life once this is all over?
AUTHOR OUT!