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Oukami sat at a table by himself, ignoring the fearful looks that people gave him. Then when Kohaku and Rin began to make their way over to him, the crowd began to titter and point in their direction. Rin suddenly had the strong urge to snap at them to mind their own business.

"Want to play?" asked Oukami as they approached the table. He riffled the cards, and without waiting for their reply, he began to deal them out.

Kohaku stole a glance at Rin, who shrugged and sat down across from the Trickster, but Kohaku said, "We want to ask you something."

"After the game," he dismissed. There was no trace of the impish boy this time; just a person intent on playing games with the air of an expert.

Kohaku glared before sitting down as well.

"What game are we playing?" blurted Rin after a moment.

"A variant of Cheat."

"What?"

"You both haven't heard of it?" Seeing them shake their heads, he said, "All right, I'll explain."

"This game is all about cheating. There are rules, though. The game starts with all of us putting as much money as we want in the middle of the table. Now, let's say I put this card down." He grabbed a random card and placed it face down on the table. "Then I say that's one five. But it doesn't have to be one five, it can be anything, like two fives, or three sixes, or four twos. Then I roll this dice here." He fished a grimy one out of his pocket and showed it to them. It was a strange dice, with one, two, three and negative one, two and three.

He rolled it and it came up with a two. "Since I get two, then I get to take two of these." He picked up two coins from the middle of the table. "And if I get negative two, then I have to put two coins in the middle of the table. Get it?"

"Yeah," said Rin. Kohaku just nodded.

"Not bad," Oukami said, "I thought I'd have to explain everything twice."

"Anyway, this card here," he poked the facedown card that he said was one five, "any of you can say 'cheat' if you think this card isn't a one five. If it is a one five, you have to give me five coins, as well as take the stack of cards on the table. And if the card isn't a one five but turns out to be an ace – for example – then I give you a coin and take the stack of cards.

"You can only put down cards that are one up or one down from the card just put down. So, with five, the next person can put down a four or a six. So if you don't have a four or a six, you cheat. Simple?

"You always give or take money based on what the card really is. A Jack is eleven coins, Queen is twelve, King is thirteen, Ace is one, two is two and so on. Oh, if it's three Aces, then you pay three coins.

"If you don't have enough money to give when you need to, then you lose and you take your money with you. The winner is the one who has no more cards. Then we split the money on the table evenly. So it's good if you stay to the end, even if you've already lost. That's about it for rules." He grinned then and picked up his cards. Rin took the hint to start playing, so they all put as much money as they wished to on the table.

"You start." Oukami pointed at Kohaku.

After a moment's hesitation, he placed two cards on the table. "Two nines." Then he rolled the dice and ended up with a negative two. He growled softly to himself as he fished out two coins from his pocket and placed them in the middle.

Rin followed next, saying, "One eight." She got lucky when she rolled the dice – three coins to her pocket. Maybe this isn't going to be so bad.

Several minutes later, Rin was grumbling loudly as she picked up the pile of cards on the table for the fourth time in a row. She was really bad at cheating, and now she probably had half the deck in her hands. Oukami had been winning all the way, so now he only had six cards left and a stack of money. I've got to catch him out, she thought, studying him for any clues.

"Three queens," he said, placing the cards on the table. Rin watched him roll the dice, and on whim, she said, "Cheat."

Oukami grinned and flipped the cards over. Sure enough, there were three queens. Damn it. She gathered up the pile of cards once again and tossed thirty-six coins to the boy. Come on, I've got to get him…I can do it…

She studied him, staring so hard that her eyes might have popped out. She wanted to win this game, she wanted to prove that this boy wasn't as great as he seemed to be. She wondered that maybe if she stared hard enough, she'd gain some insight by doing that.

And amazingly, she did.

Within her eyes appeared a dull, grey shadow around the three of them, that she could sort of see, but sort of sense as well. She looked around the room – everyone had the grey shadow surround them, some with lighter tones and some with darker tones. It was strange.

"One seven," Kohaku said.

Rin looked at him and suddenly the grey around him changed to a darker tone. A suspicion started to grow in her mind, and without hesitation, she pointed at him, "Cheat."

She flipped over the card and whooped. "Yes!" She pushed the pile of cards to him and got her share of money.

Kohaku kept his face expressionless, but inside he was wondering how Rin could have known. She didn't have any sevens; he had all four. Oukami was thinking along the same lines as he was. He had started off with four sevens and had used them all in one go. Then Kohaku had taken the pile, and Oukami knew he hadn't used it since. That girl was interesting. And he had to admit, pretty attractive too.

Using her strange new ability, Rin slowly began to catch up with Oukami, much to the surprise of the others. Inwardly she grinned. As well as using the 'grey-thing' (she began to think of it that way), she also used a trick to get rid of her cards quickly. She had come up with that when she thought back to what Oukami had said: "This game is all about cheating." So she found that if she could put three cards down, she could slip a fourth one beneath the others.

Oukami watched as the girl across from him began to catch up. Maybe she has a talent for this game, or maybe she's just smarter than I thought. Very interesting girl. He gave her an appraising look, which Rin pointedly ignored.

After a while, Oukami felt himself growing increasingly bored. Abruptly he tossed his cards down on the table for everyone to see and asked, "So what did you want to ask me?"

Kohaku said quietly, "Oukami-san, can you open a portal to the human world?"

"Why?"

Kohaku measured his words before answering. "Because there is someone I wish to see."

"And – " Rin began but Oukami cut her off.

"Come up to my room. Too many ears here." He gestured at the coins in the middle of the table. "Take what you want."

He led them up the stairs and down the length of a long corridor to the room at the end. He opened the door for them and waited for them to go through. Then he shut the door behind him with a snap and nonchalantly waved his hand. Suddenly the air in the room was charged and alive with crackling power. With another wave, Kohaku and Rin suddenly found themselves pinned to the floor, red flickering energy around their wrists and ankles.

And Oukami grinned. Too easy.

Reference to the card game: I based it off Cheat, that's true. The rest I made up. It's probably similar to another game, but since I only know Cheat, Big 2, Go Fish, Snap and Speed/Spit (whatever everyone calls it…) well you can obviously see I have very little expertise in the realm of cards…

I hope this chapter wasn't too boring, but at least you have something to think about with Rin's newfound ability. And you're probably wondering why I bothered putting in the card game. Well, Oukami tells you himself later. If you like, you can look at this chapter as a lead-up to the next!

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Reposted 22/11/05 to remove review responses