Author's note: This is based in Clamp's Clamp Campus Detectives.
Authors Note: Sorry released this chapter so late. I utterly forgot. Not only is it late, but its a small one too. I'll out out the next one early top make up for it.
Oh and of course I own none of these characters, save my three terrors. If I did, I wouldn't be posting here now would I?
Kumi walked in behind the Kaichou, looking around himself at the grand room. It was as over done as everything else here, but Kumi shrugged. Everyone had their things.
In the center of the room was only a man in a suit standing at a table with two chairs. Sitting before him was a deck of cards still in the wrapper. He raised an eyebrow at this, curious what the little flake was up to. "Have a seat, Ayashiko san."
He did as he was asked and leaned back, setting the new boots on the table with a thump. "So what do you have in mind, Kaichou? A friendly card game?"
"A business-like card game, is what I was actually looking for. While appealing to your sense of morals has proven fruitless," Kumi snorted at that. "...I have it on good information that your word in business is unshakable."
"I wouldn't be in business very long if it wasn't. Adulterers get sued, murders get thrown in jail, but squelch on a deal for a thousand yen and you get a new air hole in your head." He illustrated the fact by shaping his hand like a gun and pointing it at his head. "People say that morals are the most important thing, but nothing like money brings out the worst in people."
"On that," he commented as he took his seat. "...I agree completely."
"So, what business are we handling this morning?"
The Kaichou opened one of his fans and watched him. "Our business, finished and over with." When Kumi only raised his eyebrow again, he continued. "One game, the stakes: if you win, I stop all disruption of your work, and if I win, you leave the campus and practice your craft elsewhere."
Kumi snorted again and planted his feet on the floor, letting the chair slam forward. "I thought you were serious, Kaichou. Why would I risk so much to get something I already have." He stood and made to leave. "When you're serious, call me."
"Wait!" Kumi turned back as the Kaichou called out. "Wait. Name your stakes then, I'll gamble anything."
Kumi's eyes narrowed and he retook his seat with a smug look on his dark face. "Tisk, tisk, Kaichou. You should never let your opponent see your desperation, but then again... I already know full well how despasrate you are." He grinned deviously as he leaned over towards him. If he was going to do this, he might as well have as much fun as humanly possible. The red wash he saw spread across the pale man's cheeks made it almost bearable. He was just too easy, but Kumi thought that that was only due to the stress (after all he'd gone this far in his life without assaulting men on the street). "Now... the stakes..."
He thought on this for a moment and turned his shark's grin on his small opponent. He was making this way too easy. "Well, first off, to play a hand of poker for one bet is missing the whole point of the game. Poker is chicken with cards, the stakes getting higher with each round till someone flinches."
"So... you want to add money to the game?"
"Money? No, no. I hold my wallet near and dear to my heart, but you? You couldn't care less... you sick-o, you. No... I believe in playing for high stakes so lets keep with the theme of the ante. Each turn one of us will lay something on the table, a challenge, a loss of something the other wants... for instance: on my turn I would challenge, 'You refuse to show at the Christmas ball,' since I know how you hate to disappoint. Then you can counter with a bet of your own, whatever you think I would hate to loose. As we go the stakes rise, but if at any point you think they've gone too far, you have two escape routes. One: you can make a counter bet and call like in a standard game, and two: you can fold. If you fold, the last bet made by the opposition is null and void, but you forfeit and have to adhere to all the other bets on the table."
"I won't fold."
. Kumi didn't reply but only leaned on his elbow on the table. "As for the ante... If you win, I leave the campus for good... and if I win, you do."
"Excuse me?" the blonde blinked in clear shock.
"You heard me, and I don't mean you resign as Kaichou, I mean you leave, utterly. You're not a student, you're not a teacher, you're not a crossing guard. Nothing." He tapped his index and middle fingers, waiting for what he knew would come.
"Deal." The Kaichou had the look of a man on death row, but he nonetheless went for it. Kumi had to give him points for that.
"You heard the man," he ordered the dealer and the man began to unwrap the cards.
Nokoru looked over the scraps of paper before him, calculating what his next move should be. The game hadn't gone on too long and already a frightening loss was laid out for both men. Against Kumi was a large amount of money (his admitted true love), the ability to "arrange" matches for a year, and his motorcycle. Against himself, his appearance at a wildlife fundraiser, his commitment to aid the Matoshi temple, his position at Akira's wedding, and just this last turn, his position at Suoh's. It was his turn to counter. The stakes were dizzyingly high, but he had decided last night that he would risk everything. If Kumi demanded his life, he would continue the game. No price was too great... he had nothing left to loose.
Picking up his pen, he wrote quickly on the piece and laid it on the pile. "You withdraw from all business for a year." Nokoru's hope was that during the year he and Kameko san and Dubhain san would find legitimate jobs and give up their current professions entirely.
At his bet, Kumi whistled. "Not bad, Kaichou. I think you've gotten the hang of this, but..." he lifted his own pen and scratched out a single word before tossing it out onto the pile. "...I think I've let you loose enough. I'd hate to seem greedy."
Nokoru narrowed his eyes at the gambler's smirk and snatched up the paper. Written only was... "Ijyuin? I don't understand. He doesn't belong to me, I certainly can't gamble him."
"I'm not talking about possession, I'm talking about lives and the destruction of them. Not only him, but his mothers', and lets not forget that little fiancé of his."
Nokoru was feeling flushed and panicky. What was he ranting about? "I don't understand. How do you propose to ruin his life?!"
Kumi's only response was to smirk again (sending homicidal thoughts through Nokoru's normally passive mind) and to write on another paper. He tossed this over to him as well but Nokoru didn't need to pick it up. He could see it plainly from where he sat. Not words, but a drawing of a mask, hastily filled in with his black pen. Like someone had taken a hammer to a window, he could almost hear the shattered glass fall around him. "I..."
"Come now, Kaichou. You were the one that decided that our companions were targets, remember?" He leaned back in his seat again to prop his feet up. "Did you think I wouldn't dig up every teeny tiny detail on them? You've kept it even from your die-hard ninja, but that won't last, I assure you. You loose with that on the table and I promise, there won't be anything secret about it."
Blankly, Nokoru stared at his dear friend's name and tried to figure out a way around this; there had to be a way! He couldn't loose! The school, his life... Akira... Akira was his friend... one of his only two friends in the world. He'd discovered the truth only a few years ago, but had never said a word. Akira was too kind to take something someone truly cared for, just bobbles and trinkets and two costumed defenders (that had been returned promptly to his defense). Nokoru often worried what would happen when Suoh discovered it, his ridged sense of duty and law might cause true problems... but never had he dreamt that anyone else would expose him.
He could feel tears start to well up as he went over it all for the twentieth time and again found no way out. He could continue, make a harsh and cruel counter bet and call him... but if he lost... if Kumi's hand was better, Akira would pay the price. In the end, it didn't matter how good his own hand was, how sure he was he'd win... he couldn't risk that... he just couldn't.
With surprisingly steady hands, he laid his cards onto the table. "I fold."
Staring downward, he heard Kumi stand, shoving back his chair. "Yeah, I know." His heavy footsteps came around to where he sat. "Don't feel so defeated. You're just not ruthless enough, but really... Would you want to be?" he patted Nokoru's shoulder and started out the door.
"I'll... I'll have my withdrawal papers on the chairman's desk before the end of today."
"I know," was his only reply as he exited the doors, leaving Nokoru to stare at the pile.
As the door swung open again, wider and faster, he quickly reached out and snatched the last two papers that Kumi had laid and shoved them into his pocket. "Kaichou?"
"Kaichou?" Came the chorused voices of his friends. They were quickly at his side as the dealer bowed and headed out the door. "Kaichou what was this? What happened?" Suoh demanded.
"Are you alright?" Akira ducked down to look at his face, laying a hand on his shoulder.
Nokoru put on a sad smile and looked up at them both. "Its alright. Its over."
"How?" Akira asked and Nokoru waved his fan over the cards and papers.
"I played him a game for the school. I couldn't think of any other way to end it." He paused for a moment and lowered his head. "I lost... but its over. It needed to end, either way."
"What did you loose, exactly?" Suoh asked, his voice coming from somewhere over his shoulder as Akira reached out to pick up the cards.
"I don't understand..." Akira said, looking at both hands. "Isn't this one better?" he asked innocently, holding up Nokoru's hand. "I mean this one only has-"
"Ijyuin!" Suoh snapped at him, pushing the cards back down onto the table, but Nokoru stood as Akira face fell at Suoh's harshness.
"It's alright, don't shout at him, Suoh." He stepped over and laid a hand on Akira's arm. "It's alright. I thought mine were good, but the stakes became too high, and I had to fold. That means I had to give up and loose, rather than risk loosing something too valuable," he explained when he met with confusion from Akira.
"What did you loose?" asked Souh, ever on topic.
Nokoru sighed. "My place at this school."
"You have to resign?!"
"Oh, no Kaichou!" Akira took his hand as Suoh fumed. "No, you can't do that!"
Nokoru shook his head as the smile came back. "I don't have to resign, I have to withdraw entirely. I can no longer be a part of Clamp School."
"Like hell you can't!" Suoh shouted as he turned to head out the door.
"Suoh, no! It was a deal!" he ordered and Suoh stopped, looking back enraged. "It was a deal. Ayashiko san risked a great deal as well. I simply lost." He took a deep breath suddenly feeling very weak. "It's over now," he said, more to himself than either of them.
Akira wrapped an arm around him and led him to a chair. "Its okay, Kaichou. Sit down for a moment." Suoh came back over and knelt down before him, the picture of concern. "You stay with, Kaichou, Takamura sempai, and I'll retrieve the car," he said as he started to leave but Nokoru caught him.
"Suoh, why don't you get the car and Akira can keep me company." Suoh seemed to consider challenging that but he nodded and left.
"Kaichou?"
He looked over to Akira and brushed the side of his face lightly. "I'm afraid I have to resign my position in your wedding as well, Akira. It was one of the things that were gambled. I'm so very sorry."
"Can you still come?" Nokoru nodded and Akira's smile came back a bit. "Then everything is just fine. Are you sure its a good thing that its over? You love the school..."
Nokoru felt tears well up again but bit them back, looking up at Akira instead. "Yes. Things couldn't stay they way they were. My sadness was hurting you two." Akira made to deny it but Nokoru continued. "It was. I think you were better at hiding it, but you both were miserable for me and always worrying. It will be better now. I can't spend my days trying to find a way to stop him anymore; it's out of my hands." He opened his hands to illustrate that but sighed. "Of course it would have been better to win, but this way there isn't anymore stress. I've let it go."
Tears sprung up instantly in Akira's eyes and in his childish way, hugged him suddenly. Nokoru jumped at the surprise of it but quickly reciprocated. He had them, his friends, and they would be happy. That happiness was everything now and he focused on how wonderful it would be to play with their children and grandchildren some day. They didn't release each other till Suoh returned.