Kimimaro sighed, looking down at the card in his hand.
"You're saying that "C" is due to come again?" Kimimaro asked, brown eyes wide, as he listened to Misakaki's explanation for being there.
"It's possible. But not inevitable. Before, America could withstand "C". But after taking in Japan as a protectorate, and also replicating its economy to Japan, it's debt to nations worldwide is visibly growing; it may soon get to the point where another economic collapse happens." Misakaki went on, smile dropping as it very rarely did.
Kimimaro felt his eyes widened, realization hitting him hard, "And that'll go against us as well..."
"Correct. However, say you were to go to each financial district, both in Japan and America, and you decided to take the whole weight of the U.S. debt upon your own shoulders..." He left it hanging.
Kimimaro looked around the American branch Financial District. It was amazing how in this district, which he came to via a plane that was actually one of many private jets, and was a bit taken aback by the fact that practically the entire district was painted a green as green as the US dollar bill.
"I don't really have much of a choice, do I?" Kimimaro had asked with his head down.
"I never said you didn't have a choice. I'm simply saying that the fate of several million people are going to be in the balance of what you decide to do." The impossibly wide smile returned.
"..." Kimimaro looked, "...I'll give you my answer later. I've got somewhere to be right now." And with that, Kimimaro ran to his class.
Very late sadly.
Kimimaro had made his decision halfway to his classroom anyway.
Not that it mattered.
Misakaki was floating next to him the entire time, simply staring at him with a bored look.
It stayed that for the entire day: He was constantly being followed by the impossibly pale man wearing a top hat.
It was very evident not a single person on campus ever really noticed Misakaki, as no one ever looked in their direction with the slightest amount of interest unless Kimimaro suddenly turned and asked him what he was doing in an angry fashion.
He got some weird looks then.
As for Kimimaro in the present, he looked at his Minos card, then began lifting it so he could see through the hole that formed in it, blue hood pulled over his head so that people wouldn't recognize him later on.
As he moved it, Kimimaro watched as a man appeared before him via the hole that hadn't been there before.
Once he'd caught sight of him, he moved his card away, moving it through the air and watching as the man appeared before him in a flash of light.
Kimimaro took no time in taking in what the man looked like.
Possibly an exact replica of a human, his asset (who's name looked to be "Meri", from what he could see from his card) had short dirty blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and wore a jacket that looked like it were made from the American Flag (quite literally; on Meri's right shoulder were even several stars that went in six to five pattern from what he could see) and regular blue jeans.
"Hey there," Meri smiled, adjusting the large headphones that had a similar pattern to his jacket.
"Hey there... Meri?"
"Some call me that, but my real name's Alfred." Alfred/Meri held a hand on his hip, "So, are you the one who saved my dear old friend?"
"Friend?" Kimimaro asked, raising an eyebrow, "What friend?"
"Honda Kiku. Don't you remember?"
Alfred got a stare as a response.
"Never mind," he sighed, before turning towards another man, who was wiping his card through the air, his own asset appearing before him.
This one turned out to have a rather large asset, and as Kimimaro looked, it took the form of a humanoid giant, and it was easy to acknowledge the fact that he wore no clothing whatsoever, though a massive amount of hair saved many the sad chance of seeing a bit too much of them.
"Ah, hey there big guy!" Alfred yelled up to him.
The number 666 appeared over everyone's heads next moment, and the giant's asset twirled their card, "Macroflation."
"Feared Economy."
the machine like voice echoed, and the giant had number popping out of his back with a red outline on it.
The giant dashed forward, and passed by Alfred without even a second's thought, going straight for Kimamaro.
Of course it'd go for him, Kimimaro thought, eyes narrowing, reflecting his serious yet reluctant will to fight, an asset's power always came from its entre.
So be it.
"Alfred, go for this guy's entre. I'll try to hold this guy off as long as-"
The giant suddenly fell over, and Kimimaro barely had the time to move out of the way as it fell.
Kimimaro would look up to find Alfred looking back at him, holding a part of the giant's ankle.
"I understand the situation now; use Macroflation." Alfred's smile dropped, blue eyes that were once cheerful and carefree now serious and sharper than any sword.
He nodded after a moment of surprise, "Macroflation." He wiped his hand over his card, as the circle around its upper middle spun on its invisible hinge.
"Economic Revival."
The voice spoke, and to Kimimaro's surprise, Alfred suddenly glowed a bright light.
He faced the opponent entre, as wind picked up from his body, blue eyes becoming gold and hair becoming white, "Goodbye." Alfred said simply, then lifted up his hand, a beam of light with such concentration that even the sun itself was put to shame shooting out of his palm.
The entre didn't even know what had happened before he got hit.
He was blown away, and the glow faded, Alfred still looking as the entre lay on the ground, groaning in pain as he couldn't find the strength to get back up, only place his hands over his chest, eyes clenched tightly.
There were two orbs, one small and the other very massive, hovering on the side of two buildings, with the distinctively larger one imploding upon itself, the 666 now a 594 as it stopped, with the giant disappearing.
"You are bankrupt."
The voice said to Kimimaro's opponent, and he wouldn't forget the look of shock within their dark brown eyes as they too disappeared.
Kimimaro was taken aback by this display of power.
"He took the guy out with only one Macroflation?" He spoke softly to himself, surprise evident in his gaze.
"Hello Yoga," An oddly familiar voice spoke behind him, in his native tongue.
Kimimaro turned slowly, looking back as he took notice of the man who stood behind him.
"...Misakaki?"
"My name is Ben. But it's not surprising you would mistake us." Ben smiled, speaking in the same voice as Misakaki.
It truthfully would be impossible to tell the difference had it not been for the different colored suit and hat.
Everything else was exactly the same, even the voice.
"May you and asset lead this entire country to brighter future."
And as Ben pressed a hand against Kimimaro's stomach, he disappeared as well, and so did Alfred next moment.
Kimimaro found himself back on the jet, and he looked around frantically, before settling into his seat when the pilot said he'd be home in a few minutes.
Hearing the sounds coming from the card that was suddenly in his hand however, Kimimaro pulled it to eye level, looking and seeing Alfred.
"Hey there, I thought you were ignoring me for a second."
"Sorry Alfred. I'm just a bit tired. I never expected you to be that powerful though."
"I thought heroes were supposed to know of each other's abilities."
"Heroes?"
"Yeah. You and I are both heroes alike."
"What do you mean? How can you know that I'm..."
"You saved Honda from certain death by trying to destroy his District."
"Honda? ...you mean Japan?" Kimimaro asked him.
He got a nod a moment later, "Yeah, you saved him."
"Him? Shouldn't you be calling Japan an "it"?"
"What a horrible thing to say. Do you think I should be called an "it" too?"
"No. But why -"
"Honda Kiku was the embodiment of the spirit of the country, Japan. Try guessing what country I am."
The college student had no clue until he looked back at the corner of the card.
Meri
"You're... America?" Kimimaro asked.
"The one and only." Alfred smiled.
"Why are you my asset?"
"Because assets are the symbol of their entre's future, isn't that right?"
He stared in surprise.
"So from here on out, it's you and me. If either one of us dies, we drag the other down with them." Alfred's smile dropped again, "But I'd prefer it if you didn't..." he massaged his shoulders, "As I'm the spirit of America, I hold the American dream within me as well."
"What is that dream?"
"To someday be finally freaking free of this damn debt that weighing on my shoulders every day."
Kimimaro looked in understanding, "Alright, I'll make sure your debt gets paid off. For your sake and mine."
"Thanks a bunch, hero." Alfred smirked, "But just know that I'll be the hero this time; you don't have to worry about anything except your goal."
"We need to work as a team if we're going to do this Alfred." Kimimaro deadpanned without hesitating.
"Speaking of teams... Yoga, the Financial District rules in America are different from Japan's. If you end up making it so that a fellow entre becomes bankrupt, you have the ability to take their asset away from them, thus adding on to your own fortune and future, in a system called "Monopoly's Prosperity"."
"..." Kimimaro shook his head, "There's no way I'm going to do that. I'm in it for the futures of both the U.S. and Japan, not for my own futures. I'd feel like I'm a leech sucking the life out of everything if I try to do that."
"Self-reliant, eh?" Alfred beamed, "You carry one of the very ideals of my nation's flags: Red, or self-reliant hardiness. That ideal is the ideal of my country that with honest hard work, you get better results than if you took shortcuts. I like you, Yoga."
Kimimaro only thought to smile back as a response to those words.
As the plane landed, Kimimaro would soon be on a taxi headed to his home, a one room apartment, generally untouched by the destruction of the East Asian Financial District.
It wasn't the most majestic of things in the world, but Kimimaro didn't care.
This was reallly all he could afford.
As he was walking up the steps to his floor, however, he stopped suddenly when he saw someone standing at his doorstep, trailing off abruptly mid-sentence in his conversation with his new asset.
Yoga could only stare with widened eyes as he looked at the person standing there, wearing what looked like a high school girl's uniform in spite of her short stature, red hair going down to her waist, the only visible change in her appearance being the massive horns that used to be jutting from her forehead.
He called out to her the name she thought she was called by, and she looked to him, her green eyes visibly exhausted, but lighting up completely at the sight of Kimimaro.
She ran to him almost immediately, then tackled him in what Kimimaro knew had to be the biggest bear hug of his life, dropping Alfred's card to the ground, though not caring at all.
He only cared about the girl currently laying on top of him.
"Kimimaro, I'm so happy I get to see you again!" Mashu exclaimed with a smile of genuine happiness.
A/N: And Mashu has come back.
Hope it won't be too long before I write the next chapter.