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Act 1.4: Gamble
I dreamed I was dying, which I so often do
["Calendar Girl" Stars]
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"Oi? Anyone home?" Marron called out her customary greeting to a presumed empty apartment.
"Hello Marron!" Finn flew in from the kitchen with a makeshift apron tied around her. "I cleaned up the apartment."
Marron groaned. I thought she would leave.
"Stop with the guilt trip, I'll told you days ago I'd do it. But on my terms!"
"Really Marron!? Finn so happy!" Finn cartwheeled in the air.
Marron sweat dropped. "Why are you in that form anyway?"
"Your -"
The door burst open as Marron made an attempt to jump in front of Finn.
Failing horribly, her mother walked in to find Marron sprawled on the floor and Finn in plain sight.
"Marron?! Are you all right?" Her mother put her bags down and helped her up.
"Mom ah," Marron dared a glance at the Faye hovering between them, "I'm fine. I didn't expect to see you until later."
Knocked out of her intense concern, her mother made a floundering gesture. "It's mainly paperwork today. Brought most of it home with me."
"Oh." Marron couldn't resist darting glances to her left.
"Maybe you should start on your homework. I need to run a few… errands…" Her mother started backing toward the door.
"Great idea." Marron made what she hoped to be a casual movement, grabbed Finn, and then moved her arm behind her.
They stared at each other, briefly motionless. Then, in a flurry of movement, her mother was gone and Finn had extracted herself from captivity.
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"Why didn't she see you!?" Marron felt a heart attack coming on.
"Finn tried to explain to Marron. Marron's mother has been in and out of the apartment all day!- "
"Stop talking in third person! Change BACK!"
Finn complied.
"Look, there isn't much time for you to pitch a fit. We need to get going tonight."
"If my mother had seen you-"
"But she didn't, she couldn't. Faye depend on belief. If you don't believe it, you can't see it."
"I didn't believe in you."
"You're different. You're a kaitou." Finn sounded entirely exasperated.
"Like Sinbahd?"
Finn raised an eyebrow then nodded.
Marron waved the sentiment away, letting her heartbeat return to normal. "What's his deal anyway?"
Finn made a helpless gesture. "He's a Kaitou."
"You know those terms I mentioned? This would be one of them. What is Sinbahd?"
"He steals objects of belief and by doing it in plain sight he inspires more belief to his own persona. It's actually quite clever. "
"Who is he gathering this belief for?"
"To turn the world back to the old ways, to turn things back so people don't die don't suffer."
"…that doesn't sound bad."
"There were reasons we wanted out of the garden. To go back, to lose the drive of centauries to sit passively and never have the chance of being something better. It'll be more than you can bear, trust me."
"So you just want to stop him? Him and his purple fairy?"
"Hopefully for good, the battle between us has waged longer than you can know."
She made a face in response, "Hey, why are you so, well… cute in your smaller form? That is your real form right?"
"It was my … previous form. But nobody believes in pixie like creatures anymore. So it takes an amount of power to maintain it. It's a simple rush." She gestured down at her business suit."It's easier to handle a persona everyone can believe in."
"And everyone can see you in that form?"
Finn shrugged, "Everyone who believes in high powered executives." She started to root around under the sofa.
"…What are you doing?"
"I hid it here somewhere… Aha! Here," She held up the rosary. "Your mother was looking for it I think."
"What's so special about it?"
Finn caste a bittersweet glance at it, "It belonged to a kaitou I knew. And, I think, an ascendant of yours, this tends to run in families. Can't be certain, I was out of commission at the time." She shrugged, tossing the rosary to Marron.
Finn continued, cutting off any questions, "A kaitou has the ability to use their own belief to fuel their powers. But for now, we'll use this as a jumper."
Finn's eyes fluttered shut in concentration. The rosary began to radiate a calming green. In an instant, she was exactly the transcendent being she claimed to be.
"… Why are you doing this Finn?"
"Because you aren't strong enough yet."
"No! I meant all of this. Why do you care?"
The green reached the farthest corners of the room, growing brighter, growing stronger.
The apartment itself was silent.
"… I've seen too many people die because of the Faye. I won't live with that anymore…"
Both were embraced by light.
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Her vision was blurry and she felt disconnected. She had a sense of being horizontal, of being shaken.
Where-?
"Marron!? Marron wake up!"
There was a vague shape of green above her; her own hair obscured anything else. She brought a hand to her face and felt the cloth smooth it away. She stopped as she pulled her hand in front of her.
She had gloves on.
"I think I overdid it… You'll get used to it eventually."
To what? She pulled herself into a sitting position, cradling her head in her hands. There was a buzzing in her blood. Persistent and mildly comforting. Like summer heat, it made her all the more aware of her own skin.
Slowly, she felt the buzz subside into a mild hum. Somewhat relieved, she looked up, spotting her reflection in the t.v.
"I think I know who your ancestor was." Finn's grin was audible.
Someone else's face blinked back at her.
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Toudaiji was good at what he did. As chief detective of his own division, he prided himself on bringing in the culprit. His discipline palpable, his men too carried an expectation of achievement. However, it was sensed that he would always remain apart from them, an awed figure.
They were all men, but he was a dying breed.
He threw a dart at a board, further securing a piece of paper.
On it was a list of targets hit by Kaitou Sinbahd. With no discernable pattern. No prints. Nothing. No evidence that he had been there at all, except for the sweat of his men. And the maddening suspicion that he wouldn't be caught at all.
Not unless he wanted to be.
An officer placed another card on his desk and motioned to pick up the phone. Quickly finishing the call, Toudaiji grabbed his overcoat and motioned his men to follow him out.
He used the last dart to pin the card on his desk, an announcement for the imminent theft of the Heart of the Nile, a rare blue diamond.
It was placed by Kaitou Jeanne.
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"Why did you send a notice!?" The newly dubbed thief frantically paced the length of a nearby rooftop.
"The more people around the more belief you capture," Finn was peering at the now heavily guarded mansion and thus missed the thief's glare. She continued, guileless, "The diamond is what the Domyouji's accredit their fortune to."
"I've never done this before! I can't get past all these cops!" She threw her hands up in the air, her sunny hair cantering to her movements. "And I'm dressed in white. What sort of thief wears white to hide in the shadows!?"
Finn smirked. "You won't be hiding. All you have to do is turn their numbers against them, find where they're keeping the diamond, bypass any additional security, and then get out."
The thief fixed her with an incredulous look.
Finn adjusted her form then smiled warmly at the forlorn figure. "Game start Kaitou Jeanne."
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No one saw the green haired angel streak into the company of officers.
All of them, however, noticed the blond thief that followed.
Matchless, marvelous, energetic, courageous- The litany focusing her, Jeanne continued to divide the officers into themselves. Kicking one, punching the other, flat out running…
It was nice to know that all her bickering with Miyako was being put to good use. She punctuated the thought by flipping a heavyset man into a congregation of cops.
She laughed, "The beauty of the Heart of the Nile will be mine!"
Her senses danced, more alive than she thought them to ever be. She was aware of every movement around her and could anticipate any action against her. Her motions were stronger, faster. But as quick as she was, she sensed that she could move in flashes if she so wished, and whatever limits to her power were self inflicted.
She ducked into the hedges behind the pool house, waited then for the steps to fade. Quietly, she hissed, "Finn?"
A green light flew to her in response. "Finn found it! It's been secured at the gardener's house on the southern corner."
"Thanks Finn!" Jeanne flashed her a victory sign and quickly slipped into the dark.
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Jeanne smirked as most of the officers ran to the mansion, responding to some trap that Finn must have set off.
Taking the opportunity, she sprinted to the small cottage and swung herself onto the lowest branch of a nearby tree. Her evaluation flickered as she noticed the window to her right. At her angle, she could see the distinct twinkle of light waltzing on wires, inevitably hooked up to an alarm system. A quick glance confirmed that other windows were similarly attired. She blew strands of hair away from her face in frustration. But if they expected her to come in through a window…
She would enter though the front door.
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Finn flew high into the heavens, a shooting star confused in its direction. The green spark of her magic a beacon, a claim.
In a sense, it was foolish to so loudly announce herself.
But she would be twice damned before she let him dictate the rules of the game.
She spun madly in the air.
Finn was back and she was ready to play.
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Tense.
She had expected to be ambushed crossing the threshold.
…Then on the staircase.
Then in the corridor…
The building seemed soundless, inhaling her footsteps as she went.
Jeanne peered cautiously into each room. Darting glances quickly into each space then again, behind her.
In the last room, she felt her rosary pull toward a painting, alerting her of what she was already unconsciously aware of.
This was it.
Instantly, she was at the picture. Behind it was a small safe. Smiling, her gloved hand ran over the lock briefly before smashing it in. The humming in her blood soaring to a mild buzz. Finally-
There was a click behind her, the sound of the safety being taken off a gun.
The figure stepped out of the shadow. "Turn around slowly Jeanne."
She refused.
"The building is surrounded. You won't make it out of here with my gem."
Domyouji!? Another aspect of thievery that she had neglected to were one thing, but how to reason to the owner that she had to take his prized possession, his good luck charm?
"I'm sorry about this Domyouji san." Like lightning, she turned, pulling a discus from her back and hurling it at his gun. It caught him full in the gut, knocking him back before returning to her.
She waited, frozen…
His forthcoming groan eased her concern.
With fluid grace, she concentrated. Willing a pin to appear in her hand, she threw it at the diamond, hoping to trap that speculative quality of the gem.
"Checkmate."
She retrieved the pawn, if she had looked more carefully she would have seen that the safe held little more than a fragment of coal.
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Jeanne tried the door again but it held fast. To her right, she spotted a walkie-talkie that Domyouji san must have used as soon as she entered. Great…
The window revealed an array of officers, waiting patiently for her to exit.
"Miyako special, part one!"
Miyako-? Jeanne sweat dropped as a cop grabbed the megaphone away from her.
"Kaitou Jeanne, the building is surrounded. Come out with your hands up…" The voice continued to drone.
"JEANNE!" Domyouji lurched toward her, staggering at the crown of the stairs.
He brought the gun level to her position, trying to fix her within its sight before he squeezed off a shot.
She was already gone.
Jeanne pulled a ribbon from her hair, entered the chimney, and used it to pull herself up and out.
Below, there was deathly silence, officers waiting to arrest a murderer instead of a thief.
Domyouji's thwarted scream broke the stillness as the cops looked up in time to catch Jeanne's departing figure. Miyako looked livid.
Jeanne ignored it, launching her ribbon to a tree branch which she used to jump over the ring of officers.
She posed gaily, "Adeiu!"
And like a wisp of smoke, Kaitou Jeanne disappeared into the night.
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At her exit, two other figures made their parting. One fitted in a white trench coat, the other bathed in purple light.
Their eyes were not the only ones on her.
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[Dreaming Omega]
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[author's note]: Domyouji's name is from Hana Yori Dango