Book 2: Malum

Chapter 19: Pawn to C2

A scar indicates that something is missing. You lost something important, and there's a hole in your heart. Having that empty hole can lead to anger, hate, despair, or... it can make you reach for the sky.
- Fuuko Kurasaki (Accel World)

"Knight to B4."

"Rook takes knight."

"Pawn takes rook."

"Ahh," Marzio sighs as he reclines in his chair, bringing his heads to support that back of his neck as he closes his eyes to ponder. Is that check?

"No, it's not." Kuroro seems slightly amused; it's obvious that Kuroro has read his mind and answered him in time. "It's not check."

Thick Italian runs off of their tongues like it has been there all of their lives; for Marzio, he supposes it has, but Kuroro has had to learn, and sometimes, he surprises himself with how ethnic he sounds.

"Alright; let me think."

Let it be known that the mental musings of Chrollo Lucifer are terrifying to say the least, Marzio rumbles internally, having enough trouble as is trying to remember the placement of all of his previous placements. He has a general picture in his head as to where all the pieces are, but the titles of said pieces are the info he's having trouble recalling.

"I have my queen at F4?"

"That is correct."

"..." Marzio sighs. "That's it; I forfeit."

"If only things were so easy," Kuroro breathes, but it is obvious from the way that he too removes his hands from his chin, shattering his thoughtful pose, that the match is over. He is in neither a philosophical, nor argumentative mood tonight, and he is tired.

"You hold your liquor well."

"I have enemies." Kuroro points out. "But you couldn't possibly have shown up just for the sake of my priceless company. Let's get down to business, Marzio."

The Italian man chuckles as if this comment was meant to be funny -which it wasn't- and corrects his posture. He grabs the glass that had been sitting on the table and downs the rest of it in one go. "Let's get down to business indeed."

Kuroro grabs the bottle and pours his companion dearest some more.

"There's someone following me."

Kuroro blinks and, against his better judgement, pours himself another glass though he had sworn he would not five minutes ago. "Following you." He repeats back in Italian. "So where's the problem?"

"I don't know who it is."

"Try harder." The Phantom Troupe head suggests nonchalantly.

"Chrollo," he gives up on the entire proper posture facade and collapses back into the poofy chair behind him. "It's someone dangerous."

"And you're telling me this because…"

"Because he's dangerous."

"I'm not sending my Spiders after a certain man for you because you don't want to go to the trouble of facing him." The reply is stone-set.

"Heaven forbid," he snorts.

Silence.

It hits Kuroro like a pile of bricks and suddenly he has the vague notion this one bottle that Marzio has offered won't be nearly enough to help him out the ways he wants to be helped out.

"Your… intuition?" Kuroro ventures.

"It probably has something to do you with you, I'm guessing."

"Something to do with me." The wine tastes like shit, but it tastes like high-quality shit, so Kuroro doesn't complain. "Explain more."

Marzio throws his hands up in utter defeat and then runs them through his green-ish hair in frustration. "Beats me. He probably wants something to do with Maman."

The identifier brings back unwanted memories so Kuroro closes his eyes, not the type to display his irritation as openly as his friend. "It's a he?"

"Most definitely a he."

"This doesn't concern me-" He starts, but Marzio cuts him off.

"Yes it does." He's too serious all of a sudden, and the way he can quickly switch demeanors strikes Kuroro as extremely sly, if unprofessional. "It does."

"If it doesn't concern the Spiders, it doesn't concern me."

"Why are you even heading that ragtag group of bandits, Chrollo?" He seems to whine, rolling his eyes. "Come join me."

"And kowtow to some idiotic Boss who…" Kuroro is so disgusted by the idea that he trails off, at a loss for words.

"It's not that bad. Besides, what's the difference between the Mafia boss and you?"

"Intelligence, for one." Kuroro is actually deeply offended. "Power, for another. And aspirations."

"What aspirations? You're just going around stealing things."

"And you're just going around smoking cigars and playing rush-n-roulette in dirty bars." The leader murmurs back. "Anyways, Maman is dead, and there's no reason for anyone to be coming after you about her."

"Untrue."

Kuroro freezes. "What's untrue?"

"There might be one or two reasons…"

"Marzio Salvai Marchesi…" Kuroro closes his eyes. "What the hell is going on."

"A certain sword-"

His deep sigh cuts Marzio off mid-sentence, and deep sighs from Kuroro are never a good indication.

"Maman's acinaces." His eyes remain closed. "Where is it."

"In my possession."

"It was sold at the auction five years ago, was it not?"

"It was stolen in the commotion by a certain nobleman."

"And so you tracked it down?" His temper was being strained. "Why didn't you just leave it? We don't need that item connected to us."

"It was…" Driven through a certain woman… But Marzio keeps his mouth shut.

Ugh. "So get rid of it."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I just know I shouldn't."

Kuroro never had any trouble trusting Machi's intuition, but when it came to Marzio's he could never be sure. "Why don't you just give it to whoever's tailing you?"

"It's not that simple." He sighs, closing his eyes. "Besides, the sword is valuable and important and dangerous. It can't fall into the wrong hands."

At words like that, Kuroro cannot help but be slightly amused. Wrong hands, it was debatable that they Marzio's own hands were not secure enough of a place for the acinaces to stay.

"Marzio, this isn't my problem. I cut ties with Maman when I left to make something out of myself, and if I'm not mistaken, you did too. Let's finish up here so I can get back to my business and-"

"Chrollo."

The leader of the Geneiryodan closes his eyes and evens his breathing. "Marzio." He replies.

"How long have you been brooding over her death?"

The subject is a touchy one, a topic he prefers to avoid if he can, but with such a direct question, there's no point in trying to sidestep it.

"There's no point in discussing this." But he can sure as hell can try to.

"There's reasons to believe she might still be alive." The Italian deadpans, and at this, Kuroro finds that his temper that he is so proud of for being tame and controlled leaps like a tongue of flames.

"Can you drop it?" Kuroro says quietly, dead quiet, so quiet that it makes the silence more deafening than it already is. "Whatever that sword cuts cannot mend itself; if it was Maman's acinaces that was at the auction, then I probably used it myself to dispose of her. There's no way she's alive."

"The acinaces might deliver wounds that don't heal, but have you ever wondered why?"

"For the love of god, Marzio-"

"Hear me out, for once in your life, will you?" The tension in the room rises to a nearly unbearable level. "I know you're three times as smart as me with double the battle experience, but I know what I'm talking about when it comes to things like this."

Met with silence, Marzio took it for approval.

"We still have records on her.."

Of course the Mafia does, it has records on every last rat on the face of the earth..

".. and there's her healing ability to take into consideration."

"Her healing ability is something that might have helped her hang on for a few extra hours, but nothing more than that; it's not even a healing ability… it's an innate power where she can take life energy and use it as her own."

"It's something to take into consideration." Marzio pressed on. "And it seems that the misanthrope Ging Freecs has been sighted traveling with a female… who looks suspiciously like your former companion."

"I saw her while we were raiding the ruins." Kuroro rolled his eyes. "I'll admit they looked alike, but you're leaping to conclusions, like you always have." He stood up, finding his patience stretched beyond its normal capacity, itching to leave the room. "There are many look-alikes in the world."

"You won't even look into it?"

"No, I-"

"The sword itself creates a certain type of venom that shocks the body into stopping the formation of platelets so the victim can't heal himself. But she's always been immune to common poisons, and -"

"Maman never was the type to use common things in general. Let's stop this nonsense." The onyx-eyed man stands up and brushes himself off. "I'm leaving. Other than this, if you needed anything, send something my way."

Before Marzio can offer a word of protest, Kuroro is gone.

"Unfortunately, in reality there is no situation where one can win merely by following the rules. There will be knights that break the rules, and even chess pieces that betray him."

-Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)

Several hundred kilometers away, Rita is sitting in a room with a certain someone,

"This is a pawn. It moves one square at a time, except during its first move, when it can take two squares straight ahead, and when it captures another piece, in which case it must move diagonally."

The orangette sits in the dim lighting studying the curves of the piece. It is small, weak, defenseless; expendable. In the recesses of her mind, she imagines herself to be one of these, at the complete mercy of Pariston's emotional state and whim, as well as political standing.

"A pawn." She repeats, and the man across from her sitting down puts the chess piece back onto the eight by eight alternating patterns of black and white.

"This is your knight." He holds it up to the meager light source as well. "It moves quickly, in an L-formation, flying over your enemies. If you use it well, these will win you your battle." "To capture another piece with your knight, however, it must replace the square the opponent stands on."

Rita is getting a splitting migraine again, but at this point, she's realizing that these pains occur whenever something vaguely familiar comes up. The girl isn't sure if it's a sign that they're related to her life before Pariston, but she has nothing to lose, she's thankful, so she revels in the pain.

"This-"

"Your bishop." She blurts out without thinking.

"Veery nice," the man drawls. "And how does your bishop move?"

"Diagonally. It can't fly over other pieces, but it can turn the tide in an instant."

"This one?"

"A… Uhm… It starts with an 'R,' I believe."

"Rook!" He exclaims softly, holding up one finger in his other hand. "It moves in rows and columns, an advocate of regimented order. Think of it as your broom and dustpan."

"And next comes your queen…"

"Ah, a true witch, your queen." He chuckles. "Attests to the power of the woman. She moves in any direction you want her to, the most powerful piece at your disposal."

"The queen sacrifice…"

"I see some things are coming back to you, Rita."

"A few."

"The queen sacrifice, used to lure the opponent into wiping out your most potent piece in exchange for leaving their pieces in vulnerable positions."

"And your king."

"Your king, your most important, your weakest piece."

Rita takes a good hard look at the self-righteous chess piece in all of its glory with the cross sitting atop of it.

"Chess is a game of undying loyalty. You give your all to protect the king, who could never do the same for his subjects."

He speaks so poetically, it makes Rita sick.

"He moves one square in any direction of your choosing. When the king falls, so do his subjects."

"Alright, let's play." Rita narrows her eyes.

"No practices?" The man questions.

"I'm sure I've practiced for years before this. I just don't remember it yet."

"Alright."

Rita smirks. "Pawn to C2." She breathes.

Netero laughs, though it's more of a slow cackle than. "Pawn to D4."

"It's not the goodbyes that hurt; it's the flashbacks that follow."
- Gray Fullbuster (Fairy Tail)

"Oi, oi where have you been?" Leorio seems livid enough, face red and scrunched into an unsightly train wreck of anger. "We've been waiting for 45 minutes!"

"Mou, Leorio, it's fine, it must have been important if she was this late." Gon pipes up.

"We should have simply left her, and gotten a considerable head start."

The girl has the general impression that she won't have a smooth sailing start with the trio standing in front of her. Kurapika has his arms crossed coldly, obviously indicating blatant distrust and standoffishness toward her, while Leorio is positively steaming. Gon stands between them sheepishly.

"Well, we promised Gittarackur, so-"

"It's not like he would know!"

"But still!" Gon shouts back, pouting.

"I'm sorry, really." Rita, burying her own semblances of pride, raises both of her hands in a surrender pose. "I had to talk to chairman Netero for a few moments."

This seems to perk their attention, and Gon is the first to ask. "The chairman? What for?"

"Nothing important. There's something I needed to ask him about a certain board game."

"You seem awfully happy with yourself." Kurapika suddenly comments.

Rita feels a tic form on her forehead. Yeah well if you just beat the chairman of the fucking Hunter Association in chess and regained part of your memory, you would be too, you arrogant asswipe. "Just tired." She says in the least aggressive voice she can possibly muster. "Again, I'm sorry I kept you waiting. We're headed to Kukuroo Mountain, right?"

"Whatever," the suited man grumbles, as ill-tempered as ever, "let's just get going." He turns around to begin walking toward a blimp, but then hastily whips around for a moment. "And don't get in our way!" He points at her accusingly, though she should probably be the one saying something like that.

But this is important, this is for Pariston, this is for Gon, and maybe she doesn't want to see Killua wind up anything close to his pathetic excuse for a brother, so Rita grits her teeth and merely nods once.

"Yahoo!" The green-clad little boy jumps a little and begins running toward the blimp himself. Rita, in turn, opts to simply trail behind the trio.

Let's see where this leads us… I suppose…

TO BE CONTINUED

Life is basically like a soap bubble. It rides on the wind, flying here and there... and before you realize it - pop! It's gone. When it's about to disappear, you think that you could've flown a little higher. But by the time, it's already too late.
- Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry, again, my updating pace has been shit :) Summer is a mere two weeks away however, so I'm hoping I can catch up again for you guys and begin updating weekly again. This chapter is also a bit rushed, as final exams are in a week, so I didn't get to really proofread, so it might be a bit confusing.

But you guys officially have a new character in your midst! ("Maman" means "mom" in French, btw).

If you have any questions, please voice them so I know what to clarify during the next update! Thanks for having stuck with me for an entire 19 chapters so far! :)