Chapter 5: They Call Me Ace

As morning drug on into afternoon and then to evening Rael could see the change in his brother as he began to sober up. The fire returned to eyes that had looked dull and unseeing. His speech was returning to normal and his coordination seemed to be coming back as well. One other thing was slowly returning to him and it was the one Rael had been waiting for, his memory.

After what seemed like an eternity Giriko turned and looked Rael straight in the eye. Kess could see the look of recognition appear on his face. "You're the guy from the card game last night, aren't you?"

"Yep, that's me," Rael said with a little grin.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Giriko asked, a confused expression on his face.

"Looked like you could use a hand gettin' home so I helped you. That's all."

Giriko looked at him for a while, not quite certain what to say. Even though he was starting to sober up, the world still seemed a little hazy somehow. He put a somewhat shaky hand on his forehead.

"Got a headache?"

"I'm hung over! Of course I have a headache, you idiot!" Giriko clutched his head and moaned quietly. Maybe shouting at the guy in the cap was a bad idea.

"Sheesh, you don't have to yell. I admit it was a dumb question. You want an ice bag for your head?"

"Don't have one," Giriko said in a softer voice. "Never mind my head anyway. I'm fine."

Rael shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say."

The two of them sat in silence for a time, Rael stroking his little red soul patch (all that remained of the beard he'd grown in prison) and lost in thought while Giriko stared off into space. "What did you say your name was?" he asked at last.

"Folks call me Ace."

"That's right. I remember now. Ace, huh? Guess that's no big surprise. You won every game last night." Giriko fixed Rael with an icy stare before continuing. "Now look, kid, I've been playing cards for a long time and if there's one thing I've learned it's that nobody's that good. What's your game? How'd you do it?"

"You really think I'd cheat all those guys? Just what kind of man do you think I am?" Rael pretended to be hurt but his smile easily gave him away.

"I think you've got a pretty good scam going and…"

"And you want in on it," Rael interrupted.

"Damn right."

"What if I say no? You gonna take me back to the boys and expose my dirty little trick?"

"I'll do what I was going to do last before it occurred to me to try and get in on this. I'll cut you to ribbons."

"Alright alright. No need to get violent. You asked me how I did it, right? Well, I'll tell you. It's a great trick but it's actually really simple. I'm a weapon like you. I'm also like you in that I don't need a meister."

"Very interesting but what does that have to do with your scam?" Giriko grumbled impatiently.

"I'm trying to tell you. My weapon ability is that I can turn my body into blades that I can throw, sort of like ninja stars. Big difference though is mine don't look like ordinary shurikens. They look like playing cards." Rael could see that Giriko was giving him a skeptical look. "Haven't you ever seen people in a sideshow or something throw a card so hard it sticks in a watermelon or a wooden door? How about hit bull's-eyes with 'em in target practice? Well it's just like that except that mine are real blades so I can do a lot more damage. I can kill a man."

He paused and glanced at Giriko to gauge his reaction. He only look mildly impressed. Rael knew his brother often had a short attention span, but sometimes he would fixate on something, like this and not let it go. As long as he had it in his mind to learn the secret to Rael's scam nothing else would satisfy him.

"It's simple to stack the deck or hide a card up your sleeve or any of the regular tricks when you just make the cards from your body. That also makes it real easy to get rid of the evidence if someone accuses you of cheating since I can just suck the cards back up into myself."

Now Giriko's eyes were wide. "We could make a damn fortune with a trick like that! We'll live like kings!" Rael swore he could see dollar signs in his brother's eyes. Ordinarily this would have made him laugh, but he was too consumed by the feelings inside him, to feel like laughing. Frustration and resentment were building as it was becoming clear that even with this new revelation about his powers Giriko still had no idea who he was. How many guys were there that could turn into playing cards? How could he possibly forget that?

For a moment Rael considered just telling Giriko that he was his little brother, but quickly rejected the idea. That would be too easy. Besides the fact that he meant so little to Giriko that he could be forgotten just like that hurt him more than he'd ever admit. He was going to find out just what it took to make his brother remember him.

"Whoa, slow down buddy. I said I'd tell you how I did it, not form a partnership and take this show on the road. Last night was a fluke. I don't usually do that."

Giriko's mouth dropped open for a second. "Wait. You're refusing? Are you freakin' crazy? Don't you know what this could do for you? A year or so of this and you'd be living the high life for good!"

"Hmm… not a bad idea. Maybe I'll give that a try but that still doesn't mean I need you. After all, it's obvious you're trouble and as some wise guy somewhere said, 'better to be alone than in bad company' or something to that effect."

Giriko grabbed him the collar of his red shirt. "You're messing with the wrong man, boy! Do you want me to saw you in half? "

Rael frowned. He liked being called "boy" about as much as he liked being called "junior." Why were people always so condescending? Was it because he was only 5'5? Maybe it was the youthful face. He could never tell.

"Okay. I get the picture," he said calmly. "How about a little game? Don't worry I can't cheat at this one. It's really simple. We've met before. I know who you are, Giriko, but do you know me? If you can tell me where we've met before then we'll give this idea of yours a try."

"You're a real psycho, kid! I'm about to kill you and you want to play games?" He released his hold on Rael's shirt and sat back down on the bed. "What kind of dumb game is that anyway? Oh well. If that's what you want. This should be a piece of cake."

Giriko thought for a few moments but couldn't come up with a thing. About that time it occurred to him that he was going to have to sift through 800 plus years of memories and information for one little thought. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy after all.

Rael watched his brother with mixed feelings. Part of him felt like laughing because he knew that Giriko had to be struggling to go through all the information stored within him. After all being part of the same "experiment," "phenomenon", whatever you wanted to call it, that gave rise to Giriko, he'd had to deal with such things too. Fortunately whether due to evolution, a stronger soul, or something unknown to him, Rael had always had an easier time shutting out unwanted memories and controlling the violent urges that were encoded in his DNA. Never the less, they were still there and he did occasionally battle them, so he knew what Giriko was going through.

He did feel, however, that even with all of that to sift through, a memory as important as that of your brother ought to jump to forefront. Heaven knew he'd tried to forget his older sibling over the years but had never been able to. How could it be so easy for Giriko? The thought filled him with anger and pain.

Rael's thoughts changed direction as he watched him scratch his head in frustration as he thought. He noted how the demon weapon's hand was shaking. That's right. He was still hung over.

"Look," he said and put a hand on Giriko's shoulder that immediately shaken off, "I've been thinkin'. You're still a little hung over. That's not a very fair time to be askin' you to remember stuff. Let's forget it until tomorrow. Now it's getting late. Why don't we get some sleep?"