Disclaimer: The author does not own any trademarks used or referenced in this story.
Author's Notes: To those who have stayed on and waited patiently for this second half, thank you so much and I apologize for taking too long. Not to bore reader-san with things not related to this story, I just want to say I really enjoyed working on this one. It may have been a lot more involved than any of my previous stories have been given that the stars of this story are among the least likely to ever meet in the manga, but trying to write a script for this more than made up for the headaches of putting concept into digital paper. Also taking this opportunity to extend my special regards to fanfic_cj who helped me out with the tarot reading mechanics, and kuroko99 who betaread this story on my behalf. Thank you so much.
In the story, I'll be talking a bit about "talking as equals." Please note that I'll be using two definitions of that here: one being equals, as in a fair relationship between two people (doesn't have to be romantic), while the other, equal as in the way the Japanese tends to address people they've become close with.
A World Red with Sin and Sorrow
Chapter 2
She couldn't seem to reignite the fire from when she first laid eyes on him.
It was still fresh in Akako's memory how badly she'd wanted to take this handsome stranger home with her, openly flirting with him in between readings while constantly teasing him with all her assets. She'd never done it for any other mortal before, not even for that dense thief in white. Not only that, she was also willing to take things even further if that's what it took to get him to loosen up completely and submit to her wiles.
Now Akako wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to see any more of what lies beneath the facade of the man who introduced himself as Okiya Subaru. If that was even his real name. Amazing how a vestige of someone's past could change an oracle's perspective in a matter of seconds.
'Come to think of it, weren't there crows flying by around the time he appeared?' Akako remembered hearing their cries a while ago. She wasn't able to confirm just how many of them had gathered in that instance, too busy trying to retrieve the card that had slipped from her fingertips. Not that their number mattered - the fact that they flew by at all should have been enough to warn her of an imminent danger far worse than a bicycle speeding into oblivion.
"Are you alright?" Subaru's words echoed in her head, feeling as if it had come from a distance when only a table separated them. He sounded quite concerned, but that was to be expected. The cage of celibacy he appeared to have taken refuge in was already starting to crumble when the strange vision befell her. Talk about bad timing.
"...Oh, just a bit queasy from the heat. I've been out here for quite a while, see..." Akako felt compelled to downplay once she'd managed to shake off the cobwebs left behind by those vague memories she'd absorbed. "Speaking of which, aren't you feeling hot in that sweater?"
"Funny... That's exactly what my neighbor asked me this morning." Assured of her condition, Subaru eased back in his seat. There was a touch fondness in his voice when he mentioned his neighbor, just enough to void the strides she'd already made with him. If her charms were even working on him to begin with. "But to answer you question, only a little. I've grown accustomed to wearing these under any weather."
"I-I see... The look sure suits you rather well, I'd say," Akako jabbered. She blinked twice at Subaru as she regained traction to the present. Looking at how prim her querent was, she found it difficult to impose the gruff image of the long-haired man over it. Changing someone's appearance was easy, but only a few could masterfully disguise the treacherous aura of someone who has endured the harsh experiences that had manifested in her mind's eye.
'Wait... Why am I getting so caught up with what I just saw?!' Akako suddenly caught a contradiction. To begin with, she still found Subaru incredibly dashing and would still very much like to be enraptured in his sleek and sturdy arms. If he was going to disappear after they've unleashed their carnal desires anyway, what was the point of knowing about him or his disgruntled past? 'I don't care how many feathers he's got in his cap or how many harlots he's bedded! It's not like I'm engaging him in an inane affair like Kuroba-kun wants to have with that bumbling idiot Nakamori-san. If anything, the blood he's sacrificed only makes him more beautiful... Worthier of me than any mortal could ever dream of becoming!'
With that, Akako managed to convince herself that it was okay to continue enticing him. There may be consequences abound, but any iteration of mankind's sordid history was laden with such risks. Evolution was spurred by man's pursuit of things they weren't supposed to have. What she was doing was essentially nature taking its rightful course. "Anyway, shall we keep going? We still have six cards to go through."
Subaru nodded somewhat hesitantly. "If you're feeling fine now, then perhaps we should carry on." He appeared to be as genuinely worried about her constitution as he was when she was slumped on the ground. But was he, really? Or was he more concerned about her ferreting around inside his soul and stumbling upon his deepest, darkest secret?
'Whatever. He wouldn't still be here if he wasn't interested. I'll just have to reassert my dominance with these.' Waving her hand ostentatiously over the remaining cards, Akako finally went ahead and drew the next card, confident that so long as she'd managed to avoid pulling certain unlucky cards, she'd be able to string him along nicely with a highly suggestive reading involving finding a new fling.
The 'Nine of Wands,' albeit upright, was sadly among the more blighted ones. And it wasn't only because of the presence of a number often associated with agony. It certainly fits the narrative the previous cards and the vision have alluded to thus far though.
"The fifth card represents your subconscious motivation. Energies flowing inside of you that drive your actions," Akako morosely relayed. She laid it at the top of the cross rather brusquely, making it evident she wasn't thrilled to see that particular card. "I mentioned a while ago how the 'cups' and the 'sword' symbolize 'emotions' and 'reason,' respectively. 'Wands,' on the other hand, represent your 'will'. Suppose that you're the person holding onto this one wand here," she pointed at the character depicted on the card. "You're covering the one wand protectively with your body, implying the struggles you may have endured in seizing it. Despite that, the eight wands behind you presage even more challenges ahead."
"Another terrible card, I presume," Subaru commented.
"It's a wand short of being utterly terrible, but it does reveal that you may well be teetering towards giving up. You've been through a lot in your lifetime, after all..." The sorceress almost immediately wanted to smack herself in the head for letting on how much she knew about his past. He didn't look like the kind of guy who would rebuke a girl for rummaging through his drawers on their first home dinner, but after what she'd seen earlier, her impression on him had become so muddled that she couldn't really tell what he was thinking anymore. All she could really do was to try to salvage the situation by skewing from it as far as possible.
"...At least, that's what most of my querents are like. No matter how much they talk, they don't really reveal anything about their troubles. They look to oracles such as myself to pick up the scraps they let on and try to make something positive out of it. The nerve of them, assuming I'm some sort of miracle worker who could magically make their worries go away..." Akako groaned, unable to keep her blunt frustrations to herself. She didn't plan on harping about herself to someone she just met, but it was the first thought that slipped out of her lips. Perhaps because she'd been so bothered by it a while ago that her frustration lingered along the edge of her consciousness while she distracted herself with Subaru's presence, just waiting to get pushed off the cliff. "Pardon me, but thinking about it... It annoys me to no end."
"I don't know," Subaru began his response while adjusting his lenses, "what you do sounds rather commendable to me. Work or not, not many people willingly lend their time to others' troubles in this day and age."
This time, Akako really felt the heat rise up all the way from her cheeks. She'd underestimated this mysterious stranger enough that she did not expect him to be able to turn the tables on her completely by simply listening and picking his words carefully. No wonder he was troubled by as many women as the vision showed - they all must've experienced his flattery firsthand. "O-of course it is! If only everyone knew how much my ancestors and I have sacrificed into mastering our craft. Trust me, even a hardened man wouldn't want to know," she said, looking away all flustered. She should be the one doing the seducing here.
"Have you been practicing fortune telling for a long time?" he asked.
"Ever since I started learning how to read incantations," she confirmed.
Subaru echoed his amazement. "Must be nice to be so dedicated to a singular calling all your life."
"Let me guess... Being an engineer wasn't by choice, is that it?"
"Not at all," he confessed, curling up a rather sheepish smile. "In fact, I probably wouldn't have pursued it if a friend hadn't twisted my arm."
"First, some girl's got you by the collar, and now you claim to have chosen a career based on someone else's say-so?" Rather amused by what her querent was divulging, Akako once again leaned against the wooden surface separating them, this time more casually with her chin resting on her left palm. "Sounds like you do have a knack for getting caught up with other people's problems and trying to make them your own."
"I suppose Sherlock Holmes can be such a bad influence," he said following a shrug.
The fortuneteller rolled her eyes upon hearing the name. "So you're into those books, hm? Reminds me of a classmate of mine... He would've been a fine gentleman if he wasn't so obsessed with emulating his hero and capering with his white whale... Or should I say dove? Not that it matters." And it didn't matter indeed. At least not when she's in the company of someone who, lie or not, has given her more attention to her than she got from the aforementioned tandem collectively. "...Anyway, don't you feel sick of worrying about what everyone wants from you? Of holding onto whatever memories or promises you've made with them?" she asked, deliberately changing the topic.
Subaru looked away as he mulled the question over, as if searching for answers over at the butcher shop a couple of doors to their right. "... I don't know, to be honest. I've never really given it much thought until now..." It didn't look like it was his first time being stumped with the question. Realizing he was again falling into a lull, he chirped up and added, "...I'm truly grateful for this opportunity." He gave Akako a sober bow. The oracle curled up a small smile in return.
"Well, be glad that fate has been kind enough to have brought you to me," Akako replied while fiddling with the remaining cards. As much as she wanted to relish in his flattery, she couldn't ignore the foreboding reading that was coming out. A man who has walked away from a tumultuous life, only to be shackled by its repercussions; she'd seen enough fortunes to know it was bound to get gloomier from there. There were still cards she could use to try to tip the scales to her favor, but with the cross already at the cusp of completion, she could only hope she'd managed to draw at least two of them. "I'll have to warn you that the worst is yet to come," she told him as much. "Shall we take a look at what lies ahead, then?"
Upon a nod from Subaru, Akako pulled the sixth card and automatically placed it at the bottom of the cross. With the trajectory his reading was going, it felt inevitable to see 'The Tower' rear its appalling countenance. A monolithic portent of impending catastrophe, seeing it didn't faze her quite as much since she'd braced herself for it, and yet somehow she found herself feeling dejected when the structure rose from the shadows. She'd never once felt for any of her pathetic clients before, but perhaps such a feeling was fostered by the fact that she'd never gravitated towards any passerby until now, as well as his willingness to entertain her. Even if it could possibly be no more than a game to him than it was to her when she started enticing him. "A tower being struck by lightning as its masters fall to their demise... I suppose I don't really have to explain what this card means to you further," she said, leaning towards him with one hand cupping her chin while she looked at the manicured nails of the other.
"I suppose not," he said while picking up the card for a moment. "This card reminds me of the Tower of Babel. I assume you've read about that?"
"A classic tale of mankind's hubris getting the better of them, going so far as to trying to conquer the heavens," Akako digested mockingly. "Alas, it ended with humanity no longer being able to unite and understand one another, in more ways than one."
"That's the most tragic thing to ever happen in this rotten world," Subaru replied, himself sounding rather bitter.
"It is, if you consider man's inability to see eye to eye an even greater tragedy than a natural disaster." Content with what she'd seen, Akako slipped her free hand underneath her chin as well. "Then again, a lot of people come to me trying to find answers to the things they don't understand or ponder consciously. Whether it's about their lover or friend, or the things they truly want in life."
"Is that why you invited me to sit down? Because you sensed I might be bothered by something like that?"
"...Y-you can say that," Akako said. She may have ulterior motives as to why wanted to strap him down the querent's chair, but she did ultimately see turmoil rumbling inside of him so she just went along with it. "Going solely by your reading, there's a laundry list of people you've lied to and abandoned, and as karma would have it, you now find yourself unable to move forward while the people you've wronged harbor grudges towards you."
Subaru smirked wryly, as though balking at the inferences she'd made. "...My wiring sure is messed up, isn't it?" he said before contorting to a grave expression. He didn't say anything more afterward, but if there was any truth to her visions, she presumed he'd begun dwelling over the scars in his soul yet again. Going by the ways in which his dashing good looks showed signs of agitation and impatience the minute she started talking about his previous broads, he did seem like the type who would constantly rub those scars, reminisce on the women that left them.
"Not to worry though... No matter how tangled your wiring may be, we're about to start undoing it now, one thread after another," sweetly added the oracle. It was her plan all along to try to whittle down his defenses, only to tempt him with implications of mutual comfort: he forgets his problems for the rest of the night, and she gets what she wants from him. The ride may have been bumpier than she'd anticipated, and for a moment she found herself worrying about his well-being more than she should, but at last she'd reached the point where she could begin twisting his fortune to her favor. Well, to his favor too, considering the number of ways she can comfort him...
"...I take it the next cards will hint at the things I must do to right the ship," he surmised.
"Not quite," Akako replied. "Although the seventh card typically provides an insight on how you approach your problems, there are charlatans who may take this opportunity to put their own two cents on the matter. Butter up their customer by telling them exactly what they want to hear to try to make their reading sound more convincing. It also plays into how the number seven is perceived as a 'lucky number' in various respects."
"Like cold-reading, eh..." Subaru's expression mellowed into that of wonder shortly after making his remark, as if he'd just caught himself saying something untoward right after the fact. "Ah, pardon for that. I wasn't trying to make presumptions or anything..."
"No offense taken, my dear," Akako assured him with a slight sneer. "Like I said, it is a sacrilege to use the cards for one's own designs."
With a few superfluous hand gestures, she finally put her hands on the fated card. 'You better be either the 'Two of Cups' or 'The Lovers' though...' Akako tried to will such amorous cards into her possession. If she had been like a trickster in white she could have just as easily tucked her desired cards into her sleeve and switched them with the ones on the table. That sort of trickery was well beneath her abilities as a sorceress, however; that and her undeniable allure were all she needed to get what she wanted. A potion would have been lovely too, and they probably would be in her bedchambers by now if she had a vial handy. Curse this concept called inflation for making herbs too costly and handicapping her to the point where she had to toil as a sibyl in these dingy streets.
But Akako didn't have to grind away at charming this fair-haired stranger for long. After this seventh card she would have him eating in the palm of her had, just like the other mongrels that appalled her.
At last, the oracle picked up the card and flipped it face-up. 'Now let's see that exquisite visage of-'
She had drawn a major arcana indeed. Only that it wasn't the one she was vying for...
'Death? Death?! DEATH?!'
Akako couldn't hide her sheer revulsion with what fate had dealt her. She saw Subaru expressing concern over her reaction from the distance, but she found herself unable to articulate the card's meaning just yet. Death, after all, was probably the worst card to have in hand when performing a positive love reading. Especially when drawn reversed.
'Did you really have to show up now, oh benevolent Reaper? Or did Lucufer send for you to spare me from an imminent catastrophe?' Akako mentally deplored, her moment of triumph quashed by the appearance of what was perhaps the most irresistible force known to man. For it to show up now, at the most critical point of the reading, only meant that fate itself was telling her not to tread these murky waters any further.
"...I'm afraid I'm going to have to take my word back. It appears that I cannot ravel that which binds you." It pained her to have to give up on a man as attractive and gentle as Subaru, but she'd finally reached a point where she could no longer ignore the signs that are trying to dissuade her. Men with a past as tempestuous as his, bad luck tends to follow them no matter where they go. And if her vision was anything to go by, the misfortunes that haunt him are contagious enough that the people involved with him even in the slightest of ways are doomed to nothing but misery. "'Death,' as you may have guessed, is a rather problematic card. A unyielding knight of steel and bone, its pale stead spares mankind of the sins it has committed in this earth. The way it gallops over man, woman, and child alike shows its indiscriminate nature."
"Does that mean... I'm secretly wishing for my own demise?" There was a sense of boding in Subaru's voice when he uttered his query. It almost sounded as though he'd actually contemplated it before and was troubled that someone had found out about this dark little secret.
"Well, that's one way to look at it," she replied, setting the card parallel to the bottom of the cross. "More than actual, physical death, this card actually signifies change. Change, much like death, is inevitable. It isn't something one could resist, and yet here you are, still trying hard to do so." Trying her best to look past Subaru's appearance, she wondered if this look he was sporting was his way of trying to run from the chaos that plagued his old life. She was in no position to blame him if that was the case, but if she went along with the way the reading was going, then the reason he wound up being stuck in a loop was all but obvious. "You've gotten so used to walking away that you couldn't settle down now that you're stuck in one place. As it stands, you don't want the things - or the people you've left behind - to close in on you. You don't want to make peace for some reason," Akako said while trying to reestablish eye contact with him, not so much to convey lust toward her one-time savior as it was to try to send the message directly to the man underneath the facade.
"...Perhaps there is some truth to that," Subaru finally said before once again clamming up. Still, he returned her gaze with a strong conviction, as if wordlessly confirming everything she'd discovered through the cards. It was enough for Akako to realize she wasn't getting anything more out of him.
"Of course there is. It was your very hand who built this cross from the ground up, after all. I'm just here to interpret what you've put together." Despite the peril Akako had seen earlier, she didn't get the impression that Subaru was the kind of guy who would snuff her out for snooping around. Moreover, it actually felt as though a part of him was relieved to have found an unlikely confidant in her. She may have decided to give up on him, but the idea of him counting on her made her blush a little. If only a certain dove looked at her like that more... "B-but don't misunderstand," she said, shaking her head in an effort to stay composed. "Just because you may very well be the root of the problem does not mean you have to take it upon yourself to solve it once and for all."
"Hm?" Subaru raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just saying you don't have to be so hard on yourself. A lot of people who get reversed 'Death' panic whenever they see this card and get absurd ideas. Honestly, its quite pathetic," Akako insisted, making it sound as if she didn't want him to do anything to upset her own karma. "Instead, take it as a sign that if something is bound to happen, you've got to let it unfold naturally. Be it unavoidable encounters with people from your past or whatever..." As she said it, she regretted how incompatible the card was with what she'd wanted to achieve the whole time. She probably could've spun it better had she drawn 'the Devil' instead; 'Death' really had no place in a romantic reading, let alone an erotic one.
"Will do... Will do...," the bespectacled man nodded.
It was unlikely that a man who had apparently left a lot of people by the wayside would ever keep their word, but for his own sake, Akako wished he did take her words to heart. One doesn't just draw a series of unlucky cards the way he has, not without some malicious energy wafting around him. She would've offered to exorcise him had she still been keen on adorning her sheets with his bare form, but now that she was finally starting to get a grasp of how severe his inner turmoil was, she realized such an endeavor would be moot. Even if she went through all of her tomes and attempted the most intricate ritual recorded in them, she'd never be able to cleanse that which he incurred through his life choices. "You've still got three cards left. With luck, they should be enough to grant you some form of closure."
At last, Akako swiped the next card and immediately flipped in face-up, foregoing the theatrics from earlier now that she'd lost any motivation in trying to impress him. "'Five of Cups,' reversed," she began, holding the card up for Subaru's perusal. "The 'Five of Cups' signifies disappointment over an undesired outcome. As you can see, a man stands in the middle of five goblets, three of which had been toppled over while the other two remain upright. His attention is evidently set on the ones that were already knocked down, while his back was turned on those that are still standing. Specifically, he mourns over the spilled contents. It could be water, it could be wine... Either way, the idea is that he is mourning over something that doesn't have a definite shape unless it's contained."
"Focusing too much on the ones you've lost to the point of neglecting the ones that are still there," he deduced while looking gravely at the illustration printed.
"That's right. "It's a pretty straightforward card, don't you think?" she confirmed, putting the card at the top of the new line the seventh card started. "Going by what we've learned thus far, you clearly have regrets about the way things ended between you and the people you've let down," Akako expounded. "Of course, what's done is done and there's nothing you can do about it. Fortunately for you, you still have people who care deeply about you and are waiting for you. It's just that you've become so wary of putting them through the same rigors that others who've made the mistake of associating themselves with you that you'd rather keep them at bay."
"...I must admit, this one hits a little too close to home..."
Having struck a sensitive chord inside Subaru's soul, Akako figured it was best to move on to the other half of the interpretation. "Anyway, how are things with your family and friends right now?"
"I haven't spoken to my folks in years. They live in the countryside, you see... I've been so preoccupied with pursuing my post-graduate degree that I haven't found the time to come home even for the winter."
Subaru's answer was so well-rehearsed, it sounded indistinguishable from a peddler's spiel to Akako's ears. Having suffered through all sorts of rubbish from querents who were either trying to project a specific image or trying to lure her into telling them exactly the fortune they'd wanted to hear, Akako was used to hearing lies coming from the other side of the table. While Subaru's did not irk her as much as others have in the past, she could tell he has been trying to pull everyone's chain with it for so long that it's become reflex for him. Even the pitiful women he was involved him were probably fed with such lines, and judging from the reading as well as her vision, those must have taken its toll on those relationships. "And what of your friends?"
It took Subaru a bit before answering. He didn't seem as prepared to be quizzed about it. "...We still talk and have a few drinks every now and then, but as you get older and your priorities begin to change, social calls like that become more and more sporadic."
Again, an answer that appealed straight into the listener's common sense more than anything. "...So you currently don't have anyone you confide with more regularly?" she prodded.
"Hmmm... I do hang around my neighbors' a lot recently, if that counts. He's a senior in the same field I'm in and we've got quite a few common interests."
'Again with the neighbor,' Akako mused. "Do your neighbors know about-" The oracle stopped herself for a moment, keeping herself from making any references to the glimpses she wasn't supposed to be privy of whatsoever. "Do your neighbors know about terrible your taste in women?"
The question made Subaru chuckle bitterly, ironically one of the more genuine reactions she'd gotten from him ever since they started with the session. "I'm afraid my sordid affairs wouldn't make for a great conversation. especially with them."
"So you say," Akako said. 'And yet I'm still mired down in your sorrowful tale as we speak.'
"I'm not sure why we're talking about this now, if I'm being honest," he disputed, sounding almost apologetic and continuing to defer to her expertise.
"Ah, right." It occurred to Akako that she had jumped straight into the interpretation, like she was in a hurry to finally end this rather vain campaign. "The eighth card in the cross explores the world around you. How your relationships figure into who you are now and the baggage you've been dragging around."
"Is that so? Well, pardon my skepticism, then." The response seemed to quell Subaru's doubts immediately. "It's not looking good, I bet..."
"Only if you let it stay that way," Akako sternly replied. "People assume that oracles like myself have all the answers to their problems since we can see the future. Should they stay the course and let that future unfold? Or should they get off the beaten path the first chance they get and try to forge a different path? Ultimately, that's not for me to decide. At best, I can only talk them through the choices laid before them." Realizing she got too heated to the point of scolding him, she chirped, "I give very good advice though." 'And I would've given you more than that, but alas…'
"Perhaps it's got something to do with your hopes and fears. Let's have a look at what sort of energy is keeping you from reaching out to them."
Picking up and unveiling the next card ended up being the soothsayer's turn to scoff at the kind of luck they were both having. She tried to hold it in, but the timing had been too laughable that her composure gave out with little resistance. 'First you're going to give me 'Death,' and now you show up,' she thought, mocking the upright 'Two of Cups,' in her hand, a card she wished she'd drawn sooner. 'How long are the goddesses of fate planning to make a fool out of me?'
"...Is it another terrible card?"
"N-no! Not at all! As a matter of fact, it looks like fate has decided to cut you some serious slack!" Akako feigned elation as she presented him the card. "'The Two of Cups' symbolizes union. As you can see, a man and a woman are exchanging cups before Hermes' caduceus, with the herald making sure everything is reciprocated between the two parties." Since it was already too late to use the card for her own machinations, she decided not to interpret it in a romantic note. "Based on everything we've learned up to this point, fate is essentially telling you to start confiding other people more. In addition, it's possible for you to bridge a gap with someone you've had a falling out with. But only if you're willing to meet them halfway."
"That's... A bit of a tall order, I'd say," Subaru reluctantly said, scratching his right cheek with his index finger. "I'm not sure if I could really talk to my neighbors about... certain things.
"Well, won't won't break this cycle you're trapped in if keep avoiding everyone. Though if you're not sure who exactly it is you should be confiding to, we can always ask the cards."
"You can do that?"
"Of course. The ninth card tends to be a little vague at times so we have no choice but to draw another one for context," Akako explained, pulling the card that was already on top of the deck. He'd already shuffled it a while ago, and judging from the cards she'd been flipping and the insight she had on his past, she found no reason to reshuffle them any further. "'Two of Swords,'" she announced before proceeding with her interpretation. "A woman wielding two swords under the moonlit sky. Her defensive stance shows indecision in the midst of a tough challenge, while her blindfold suggest that she doesn't fully understand what it is she is facing. It could very well be the reason she finds herself at an impasse, perpetually waiting for either blade to shudder in her grasp."
"Ah, a very cautious individual," Subaru cupped his chin with his left hand. "I think I know a handful of people like that."
"Well, whoever they are, they're probably just as hesitant to reach out to you as you are in opening up to them," she said while integrating the last two in the spread. "In that way, you two are balancing each other out."
"Balance between two people, huh...," he repeated, once again wallowing in thought. Akako waited patiently for him to keep on, confident that the idea resonated with him in some form or another.
'Perhaps he isn't beyond salvation after all,' she thought, a little bit surprised at herself for finding a semblance of relief for the person sitting opposite her. She'd forgotten how gratifying it felt, having grown cynical of the lot that frequently afforded her services and the grievances they typically exhausted her with. Then again, how often does a man with as many secrets as him hunker down and allow a fortuneteller to unravel his mystique a bit? She would've loved to to delve deeper into his tale, but with one card remaining, she knew she had to let go of him soon. Unfortunate, yes, but therein lies the true beauty of such encounters.
At the time however, she never could've predicted that the thread connecting her fate with Subaru's would run out far sooner than she expected.
"Look! It's Subaru-san!" a little bird chirped loudly from across the street just as Subaru about to finally open his mouth again..., followed shortly by footsteps rumbling towards them.
Soon, Subaru was flanked by four children and a middle-aged man who looked like he'd been plucked out of one of those morning programs that teach kids how to make useless potions and bottle rockets. Three of the kids certainly looked gullible enough to be fooled by such tricks judging from their wide-eyed looks and pastel clothes that looked pallid under the orange tint of sunset. The lone girl standing right behind the others, on the other hand, stuck out like a bruise due to her foreign features, dark-colored one-piece dress, and a shrewd aura that belied her age.
"My, this is a surprise. What is everyone doing here?" Subaru asked.
"We're going for yakiniku!" answered the girl whose hair was being kept by a headband, in the same squeaky voice that interrupted them earlier.
"I'm gonna grill some eel!" yelled the plump boy.
Somehow, the other boy whose face was lined with freckles took umbrage to his friend's claim. "Genta! There's no way they've got any eel there," he said.
"Now, now. I'm sure they've got plenty of other fine cuts," their guardian assured. "I can't wait to try some black pork myself."
Overhearing the discussion about food, Akako began to feel the pangs of her own stomach. 'This is bad. I hadn't eaten anything since last night,' the sorceress resented. 'Gahh! That plantsman sure ripped me off on those bloodroots I ordered.'
After a begrudging sigh, the foreign-looking girl took it upon herself to humor Subaru with the specifics. "The professor forgot he had coupons for that yakiniku place three blocks from here. It expires by midnight, so we decided we might as well have dinner there."
"How thoughtful of you to spoil the professor on a normal weekday like this," Subaru chided.
"Don't misunderstand. I just didn't want to waste the coupons," the girl answered back. "He's going to have to burn all of it for the rest of the week."
"That's too bad. But I suppose it's for the best. I can tell he gained at least three pounds since the last time I saw him."
Seeing how Subaru and the foreign girl isolate themselves into their own little world while the rest of the group droned on about black pork, Akako wondered if this girl and the so-called professor were the neighbors Subaru spoke so fondly of mere moments about. It would explain their familiarity with each other's daily affairs. And yet somehow, Akako found her own conjecture rather lacking, like there was something she was missing. 'Is that all there is to it though? How can a brat like her keep up with a guy like him? They talk as though they're equals...'
Compounding her doubts further, the foreign girl brazenly mocked Subaru's observation. "For someone who's dabbling into the occult now, I'm surprised you still have interest in ordinary folks like us."
"Oh, I'm just killing some time before dinner," the bespectacled man clarified. "Are you worried I might stop coming over once I get into something new?"
"Hmphh... You must've been hanging out with a lot of weird people lately that you've become even more delusional," she replied, rolling her eyes at Akako's way.
'Are you insinuating something, puny girl?' the sorceress challenged back.
Before things escalated between the two, the portly boy called Genta nudged his foreign-looking friend and, in a feeble effort to keep things low, asked, "who's that old lady over there anyway?"
'Old?! OLD?! You've chosen the worst time to mock me, you filthy little swine!' Akako was about ready to roast him on the spot, but the foreign girl reproached him with a look before she could even get to her talisman box. For that, Akako decided to let the foreign girl off.
"She kinda looks familiar though," the freckled boy chimed in. He sought affirmation from his friends, only to garner some skeptical looks.
Showing no interest in trying to recall a stranger's face, the peppier of the two girls instead suggested, "let's take Subaru-san with us!"
The boys slavishly agreed, almost in concert even. 'She'll be a formidable rival in a few years,' Akako thought. 'That, or these two boys are just hopeless.'
"Funny you mention it. I happen to have a spare coupon right here." The so-called professor then produced a coupon from his pocket, making it seem like he's been thinking the same thing all along.
"I assume that was for Conan-kun," Subaru deduced.
"Well, he's with Mouri-kun in Osaka right now. A friend of ours invited them over for the weekend," the professor explained. In the background, Genta was audibly complaining to the other two kids about their absent friend having Unatama bowl.
"Let's just hope it doesn't get annoying this time," the foreign girl added.
Subaru cupped his chin in thought. Already with a decent grasp of his body language, Akako quickly realized he was merely faking it. "I think I'll have to pass. I don't want to impose on you in that way," he apologetically declined, just as she expected. "Besides, I've already got plans for dinner."
To Subaru's surprise however, the professor readily shook his head. Seems he had anticipated his response as well. "You've been making dinner for us frequently ever since you moved next door. It's about time I treated you, for once."
"Is it really alright?" he asked everyone, only to be met with upbeat expressions from the children who invited him in the first place. He then referred to Akako, but after everything she'd learned about him, she could only give him an encouraging nod. Ultimately, his eyes landed the foreign girl's way, as if her approval mattered the most out of anyone else in the group.
"I was going to suggest leaving you two alone," the foreign girl said, returning his gaze with a wry smirk.,"but the majority has already spoken."
With nowhere else to turn to for any hint of a dissenting opinion, Subaru found himself unable to dash their hopes this time. "Well then, I suppose I must oblige you on the offer." As the kids rejoiced over his acceptance, he turned back to Akako to finally bid her goodbye. "I'm really sorry, but it looks like I won't be able to finish the reading after all."
Under normal circumstances, Akako would've been so peeved by this development. With the way Subaru's reading went, the relief she felt in watching his rather quick upturn was more than enough to quell her disappointment over such an abrupt end. "It's alright. This is how it's meant to be anyway, just as the cards predicted."
"Right. It was certainly an enlightening experience," he concurred as his left hand reached into his back pocket. "I owe you for reminding me of things I keep forgetting about."
"N-n-no need for that!" Akako stammered, blushing a little as she waved her hand in denial. She'd forgotten what it felt like to be thanked that it almost felt euphoric. "I already told you it was on the house!"
"Ah, don't worry about it. Just that my dinner plans had apparently changed so I've got no use for this anymore." Instead of a couple of bills, Subaru produced a lead of coated paper and left it at the table. "Besides, you're feeling quite famished yourself, aren't you?"
The fact that Subaru noticed Akako's sudden pining for food caused the oracle's blood to well up to her cheeks like a geyser. It was embarrassing, knowing he'll be parting with her while she's in such a pathetic state. What's worse, she didn't even get the chance to properly bid him goodbye as he was whisked away by the three children and their guardian.
When they'd finally disappeared from her sight, Akako was immediately nostalgic. Never in her life did she expect to meet someone who would tickle her imagination in ways she never thought possible, especially not in the middle of a bygone shopping district. Although the cards themselves had gotten in the way of her advances towards him, she felt like she came out all the better for it anyway. That a a man bogged down by all the tragedies he'd lived through would find comfort in the trifles she was spinning, it was far more fulfilling than she ever imagined it would be. Ironic how such a genuine emotion was spurred by a facade held together by a string of lies.
"Hmmm... I think that's about it for me today," Akako told herself as she began dismantling the unfinished cross. For once, she wanted to end her tenure in streets on a high note. Relishing in so much goodwill after the encounter, she didn't notice that a member of the group had fallen behind until...
"...You were trying to hit on him, weren't you?" the foreign girl suddenly asked.
With Subaru and the rest already a few meters away, Akako decided to drop the pretense as well. "Isn't your tongue a little too sharp for your age, my dear?" she countered, raising her eyebrow at the rather grim expression she's being greeted with.
Unfazed by the oracle's attempt at intimidation, the girl looked away and said, "you better be prepared to go to Hell if you're serious about going after a man like him."
"I should listen to the advice of a twerp because...?" Having herself a prolonged look at the young girl's features, only then did Akako start to feel a sense of deja vu. '...Have I met this girl somewhere before...?' Unable to recall her face despite her relatively sharp memory, Akako slanted her perspective a little bit until she found a resemblance. 'Wait... Was she in the vision from before...?' she wondered, a tad bemused since all the women from that reel were at least a decade older than her. Specifically, she looked so much like that ill-starred woman who struggled through countless nights waiting for something in her dreary life to change. In that quick flash, she looked so worn down that a slight nudge would suffice to push her into the brink of insanity. Could this young girl be another incarnation of her? Or was she perhaps afflicted by some sort of curse? While it was easy to change one's looks and image, the only way Akako could make sense of this disparity was to consider otherworldly possibilities. "Hmm... Are you Aphro-," she stopped midway to correct herself, "no. You're definitely Persephone."
"Huh? Aren't you talking about the wrong pantheon?" the permed child retorted while giving her a derisive once-over.
"Oh please... I've got connections to powers you couldn't begin to comprehend," Akako
"I wouldn't doubt it," the young girl said back, unimpressed. "Unlike the man you were flirting with, I don't dawdle around with anything unscientific."
Refusing to stoop into a quibble about how her ancestors paved the way for modern apothecary, Akako instead shot her a smug grin. "Well, whatever... I don't know what's going on between you two, but I'd rather not meddle with it any more than I have. He's your problem to deal with."
Just then, one of the foreign girl's friends called on to her, finally noticing that she somehow stuck behind after their initial excitement for Subaru had cooled down. "You don't have to tell me," she said flatly before responding back to her friend in a livelier tone that was more apt for her physical form. Without another word exchanged between them, the foreign girl walked away and rejoined her group. They seemed to have quizzed her about her exchange with Akako, but by then they'd walked far enough for Akako to hear what she'd said in return.
'No wonder that guy couldn't catch a break... Even the people he seemed to have wronged are just as complicated as he is...' Akako thought to herself while she picked up the rest of the cards. 'But seriously, I hope you find the peace you're looking for... And that goes for everyone else around you.'
Eventually, her fingers landed on top of the one card that was left unturned. The potential outcome of Subaru's actions and perceptions. Even at the last moment, she'd never given much thought on what the card was going to be. Seeing there was no point in putting up with the suspense with everyone already gone, she flipped the card up to see what she wound up drawing. "Oh... This makes sense," she said before quickly returning to the card to the deck. The world didn't need to know what fate has in store for the man who goes by the name Okiya Subaru. Akako decided it was going to be a little secret she'll keep as memento of the fleeting moment she shared with that strange man. Barren as the district was, it was probably the last time she'll set up shop in his neighborhood. But even though it was unlikely they'll ever run into each other again, Akako felt a sense of relief knowing he'll be okay no matter how bleak his past may have been or how grave his immediate future may be.
Once she'd finished putting her belongings back into her bag, Akako noticed the piece of paper Subaru had left behind. Not the restitution she was vying for, but since it's already there and there was no way to give it back, she decided to take it with her. Upon further scrutiny, she confirmed it was indeed a coupon. "'Ramen so wicked, it's too die for?'" she read the print out, noting the extra effort its unknown designer channeled into making sure that the text for 'wicked' and 'die' stood out. "Ha! Looks like Death isn't finished cracking jokes for today." she remarked. At the very least, she wasn't walking out of this ordeal hungry.
The End.
written by tsukuy0mi47