Note: This might as well be taking place in S&S's potential future, when Kei and everyone else are 18 and already Jounin. The theme for this fic is between two main songs: (1) Amanda Lee's new cover of Fairy Tail's Masayume Chasing, and (2) joshagarrado's piano cover of This Game from No Game No Life. Because I have yet to use either song in S&S proper, and well, it's about time.
Please enjoy.
Sparkle 33: The Start of [ ]
What is your favorite urban legend?
Slender Man? Your local haunted house?
Well, this one doesn't start with anything scary like that.
This legend starts with a single book.
The book was inconspicuously sitting on one of the displays when the first person picked it up at the local bookstore. A light blue paperback cover, the contents inside almost like any other book with the neat black font.
What made it different came from two reasons.
The first was that there was no author name listed. Anywhere.
Any book out in existence known to the public usually had a name on its cover. A name that led to a real face people could search for if they wanted, if they didn't get enough in the book itself and wanted more. Jiraiya was one such famous example, considering his Icha Icha series and his not-as-famous debut work that supposedly inspired the Fourth Hokage's naming sense.
When that first person picked up that blue book, however, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Only a title of Finding Meaning written in white curved lettering and nothing else. Even inside the flap of the back cover, there was nothing. All there was for the reader to look at was a simple blank space.
The second reason was that the preface read as follows:
"There is no author name because there is none to give.
This world took away my voice.
So instead, I write.
If I spoke any of this aloud, or shared it with anyone else except a select few,
The world would have already declared me unfit to live and then kill me in quick fashion.
This world has already deemed me a blank space,
A space to be filled in by others more ignorant than me.
To such a world, I take away my name.
I am only Blank."
Needless to say, the first reader was quite confused. For such a bright looking book, it was an ominous preface. The author, if there was any, was only referred to with a [ ] onwards, essentially becoming their self-created moniker of "Blank" in the eyes of the public.
The contents past Blank's written preface? They resulted in only more questions.
Poems. The contents were of simple poems. Unlike other poetry books, that reflected old traditions and possibly rhythms from a koto, such as the Waka and Haiku styles of writing, this same strange book had no rhythm whatsoever.
Again, there was only a title adorning the top of each page, with a poem that had no flow to follow. It was almost as if each one was written when the person behind the pen was in a dark place, alone with no one else to talk to. But, the troubling thing was how each word had the effect of "stabbing someone in the heart when reading," or so the first reader claimed.
One poem in particular ran as follows:
Shitty Game
What is the point of a world with more than 5 million people populating it aimlessly, never with a goal to improve and help one another?
What is the point of a world that advocates killing more than living?
Past the paperwork,
Past all the missions,
Past all the money,
Past all the alliances,
What worth is there?
What kind of happiness is it
When it comes from running the ground dry
With the blood of enemies?
If you speak out too much,
You get penalized.
There is no chance to pass your turn.
And whether you win or lose,
There is always a cost.
This world, perhaps,
With its lack of rules
And its advent of Bloodshed,
Could only be called
A Shitty Game.
Needless to say, it stirred every population imaginable. Despite outspoken negative reviews, and even public displays of the book being burned by the occasional detractor, Finding Meaning soared in the sales lists, and ninja and civilian alike picked up the book, looked at it, and asked the same question.
"Who is Blank?"
"Hey, Kei, have you read that book yet?"
Gekkō Keisuke nicknamed "Kei," raised her head from the latest Icha Icha novel, blinking as Shiranui Genma waved at her from across the room in the Konoha Jounin lounge. "Read what?"
Genma stared at her incredulously for a single second. "That book, Kei! Man, I'm surprised you haven't seen it. You read books almost as much as Kakashi." He then uncrossed his legs against the nearest table to sit up and start rummaging through his pockets. "Where did I put that thing…?" The single senbon in-between his teeth shuddered as he continued to search his pants until he found the thing he was looking for. "Here we go!"
With a large grin, he brandished the book in her direction.
The book was small, somewhat crumpled as a result of being a paperback stuffed into a Jounin's pants pocket, but the light blue cover and white lettering of Finding Meaning was hard to miss. "This book. Finding Meaning. Everyone in the streets has been clamoring about it. Raidō's been reading it too, and it's definitely…" Genma paused before finishing with air quotations and a hesitant, "Famous."
"Famous?" Kei echoed, putting down Icha Icha to take the wrinkled book from his hands and glance it over. "Wait. There's no author." All she was seeing was light blue and white lettering from the title. Then again, anonymous works did exist.
Unusual, commented Isobu. Then he went back to swishing his tails. It was obvious he didn't really care. Well. A book was still a book.
"That's the thing. People have been trying to find out who the author is but open up the book." Genma pointed at the bent front cover, motioning to her to open it. "The preface says everything."
"You don't have to breathe over me for it." Still, Kei opened it up as instructed, scanning over the words inside before lurching back. "'I am only Blank'? 'This world took away my voice'? What the hell?"
Genma only shrugged when she gave him a questioning eye. "The publisher's apparently private too, so everyone's been breathing fire over who this Blank really is. Especially because of what they wrote." He took on a grimace as the senbon lolled between his teeth. "It's…not exactly a pleasant read."
Kei turned the pages, flipping past the Table of Contents before landing on the first poem.
"Rules." She was already stopping at the title. "What?"
"Every poem starts like that. A short title before they hit you with dark shit. It's not even musical to help with the weight." Genma spread his arms out onto the couch behind him while leaning back, looking up towards the ceiling. "It's definitely made me think a lot at least."
Kei was already zooming through the lines before feeling her blood turn cold.
What is the point of rules when it forces one to lose themselves?
What is the point of law when it turns people into monsters?
What is the point of it all,
When I have to watch my friends die in the name of those laws?
Isobu was already raising his head from his shell. This is—
This is calling out the ninja system.
Kei flipped through the pages.
Bindings. Limits. Finding Light. Believing. To Be Silent.
The same short titles. The same purpose.
Lines kept speaking out to her.
A world that does not value its own children's lives is nothing.
A world that makes children fight in the name of "justice" is only fooling itself.
A world that refuses to acknowledge its weaknesses and improve will eventually die.
Before she knew it, Kei had already made it to the back cover, and there was only a single paragraph.
This is the only hint I will give to my identity.
To the name that this world refused to acknowledge.
For a single sword.
The hidden turtle too, if you'd like.
I challenge you to a small game.
Find out the Blank.
You know where it starts.
Look to the Stars.
- [ ]
Hm. Isobu waved his tails excitedly, a low growl rumbling in his throat. That is a direct challenge. To us.
Of course it is. Of course. Kei took a deep breath before leaning back into her chair and looking up to the same ceiling. Of course it was blank white tile. There was the occasional inspirational quote for any ninja bothered to look up there, but the ceiling reflected the book's contents. Clean white pages, hiding flecks of black dirt, quietly asking someone to acknowledge the world. "Does that explain the smoke Kakashi's been complaining about?"
Genma only grunted, but it was still a reply. Judging by his chakra, he was definitely annoyed, if not frustrated at the situation. "Some civilians have recently made shows out of burning the book in bonfires because it hit too close to home. Even then, people are still reading it. It's going somewhere, Kei. I dunno what else to tell you." He finished it off with a helpless roll of his shoulders.
Kei only closed the book gently, smoothing out the wrinkles in the covers as best as she could. "Hey, Genma?"
"Yeah?"
She only waved the book in the air for the show. "Think I could borrow this for a bit?"
The action still did something as Genma sat up pin straight to look at her. With the same incredulous stare all over again, too. His senbon dangled low enough to where it could've easily dropped into his lap. "You have a clue to who it is?"
Kei stood up, stretched for a moment, then grinned wryly. "There's only one person I know who's this poetic."
Nagareboshi Cafe was still the same as always. With the warm scent of cake and tea, servers giving a respectful nod in her direction through the window, and the music coming from the doorway, it felt normal.
Kei reached out with her senses for a moment, searching for that rainbow before pulling the large red doors open.
Tomoko was at the piano again, playing a song Kei actually didn't recognize. Her hands were flying across the keys, not even minding the occasional long strand of black hair falling onto her fingers. Her eyes were closed, and with the way her sandaled feet moved across the pedals underneath the keys themselves, it was as if she was in her own world. The blue-ruffled sundress said that enough already.
She's not even working with that outfit, and she's playing anyways. Of course.
Kei held back a snicker before listening in. Through the music, she could at least make out the emotion of what could vaguely be coined as "justice" and a single sentence in the chakra rainbow.
I don't want to be just another cog in a corrupted machine.
This time, Kei held back a wince.
The only other company Tomoko had in her direct vicinity was Miyako, and she turned an eye in Kei's direction before the corner of her mouth quirked upwards. With a nod back as a reply, Miyako only smiled wider, chakra reaching over to ping Kei's in soft acknowledgement before carefully getting up from her seat near the piano, dusting off her lavender yukata before walking over to the bar where Hikari was, leaving the chair vacant.
How predictable, Isobu said softly, but his voice had already gotten quieter from taking in the music too. She is quite the spokesperson even without saying anything.
Who, Mom or Tomo, Isobu?
Both.
Kei walked over to the empty seat and sat down as soon as Tomoko started the last chord. The keys themselves could've squeaked from how much force Tomoko was putting on them, as if she was hammering into the world that she was here and not someone to be ignored. The sound too, was triumphant and yet sad, as if saying farewell with the final key being played.
A single minute passed, and then Tomoko carefully removed her hands from the keyboard, exhaling while opening her eyes.
Kei cut to the chase. "Hey, Tomo."
As expected, the civilian jumped. Her mouth gaped for a single second before she turned her head, and wide blue eyes stared at her before she smiled. "O-Oh," she said simply, voice cracking. "Hi, Kei. You surprised me!" With a giggle, Tomoko kept smiling, almost oblivious if not for her chakra flickering again. "What is it?"
Kei inhaled slowly, resisting the urge to scratch at her scar. Instead, she reached over and pressed the nearest privacy seal on the grand piano before taking out the book hidden inside her flak jacket. It was still crumpled despite Kei's best efforts to fix it, but the title was unharmed. She made sure to offer it under the cover of a handkerchief, for the sake of appearances. "This," she started bluntly. "Something about a sword and turtle being asked to find a blank among the stars?"
Isobu rolled his eye.
Tomoko blinked at the book before taking it gingerly from Kei's hands, her right index finger barely pressing against the front cover hidden by the handkerchief. "Finding Meaning…" she murmured softly, before looking up at Kei with a more mysterious smile. "Well," Tomoko said. "That was a quick Checkmate." In spite of her supposed "loss," her grin only grew larger as she then hugged the bundle to her chest.
"Before any Star was born, the universe started from a Blank, didn't it?"
Of course. Kei only snorted. "If it was anyone other than me—"
"Then the Big Bang wouldn't have happened." Tomoko was still smiling as she then reached over with her left hand to pull Kei into a tight hug, squishing the book in-between them while doing so. A cheek bumped hers as the civilian girl kept smiling. The chakra rainbow poked the endless sea as Kei rolled her eyes and hugged back. "But Life has already started its course to the Future. So thank you, Kei-chan."
"For what?"
"For being the First Winner to my Game."
This is the start of the newest legend. The newest myth, known to ninja and civilian both as only [ ].