Boss Rush

XXXVI: Spell of Pain

"You don't have to do this, you know."

Koichi waved aside Ryuusei's protests. "This is the part where you tell me that I'm completely outclassed, to leave it all to you from here onwards, go home and have a stiff drink. Not having it. I'm older than you. This is personal. So, let's just skip everything to the part where you'd help me, yes, kid?"

Ryuusei sighed. "Am I so predictable?"

"No. I'm just older than you," Koichi shook his head. "But, that friend of yours, the one that looks like Black Thunder. Chase Princeton. Why did his dragon flip out on us?"

Ryuusei shifted. "The dragon's allied to her, I think."

Both of them stopped before the doors of the Waiting Room leading to the Oblong Office.

Koichi sighed as it opened into the face of Nakamura Iemitsu. "Fudo-kun... thanks. For your help."

"Maybe I have an ulterior motive as well," Ryuusei considered. "Do you have it with you?"

Koichi nodded. Then he entered.

The Oblong Office did not always have its name, and its name had nothing to do with its shape. It was actually a square office, rather large and decorated in monochrome of black, white, and one fountain. Cabinets lined the shelves, each bearing keyholes on glass-covered doors that were locked and only one copy of each key existed. Behind these keyholes were, supposedly, the files of almost every psychic in the Central Movement, former members or otherwise. It had been the office of Madame Shimotsuki, and was now the office of Shimotsuki Setsuka, hence it was the office of the head of the Arcadia Movement. It had inherited its name after a Discworld joke about Lord Vetinari after Setsuka's fist Machiavellian scheme, and the moniker had endured.

Setsuka was holed up in the Oblong Office, in the midst of reassembling a game board Nakamura walked in. It looked broken, as if someone had flung it and it had shattered on impact. "Yamamoto Koichi, Missy."

"Send him in," Setsuka cleared away a few odds and ends of the still-being-pieced-together board and got out a ledger as Koichi settled across her. Behind her, the door thudded shut with finality before clicking sounded the locking of the doors.

"Hi," Koichi began.

"Yamamoto-san," Setsuka began. "I have reviewed your hours. Although your sojourn here was rather unfruitful, I am willing to reimburse you for the trouble taken for such an individual such as yourself." She slid an envelope over to him. "You may ask Nakamura-san for the pertinent details regarding depositing."

"Thanks," he crossed his arms as he put the envelope into a coat pocket. He made no move to leave.

Setsuka steepled her fingers and looked over the top of them at him. "Was there something else you required?"

"Just wondering," Koichi ventured. "Psychic Duellists as a rule don't exhibit normal psychic powers, right?"

"What an interesting question," Setsuka mulled over. "Is this for a case?"

"Sort of."

"Well, as a rule, the powers of psychic Duellists are limited by the affinity to the deck type they share," Setsuka answered. "Say for example, Kaido. He has psychometry, that is the ability to obtain information by merely glancing at a person or object, but he cannot scry, or read the future, because he uses a Spellbook deck. Myself, I have cryokinesis, and a few have exhibited telekinesis, but only through Duel monsters and Solid Vision."

"Ah," Koichi considered. "So, mind control isn't possible?"

"A Change of Heart being employed is completely possible. It has been done before."

"A Change of Heart," Koichi repeated, looking at her.

"Yes. It is not a fact the Movement publicises."

"'Course not," Koichi met her cold eyes, glimmering with something he distantly noted to be condescension. A common expression in the eyes of Shimotsuki Setsuka. "Say, for example, that I have a good idea what happened to Tsugare. I even have an idea who is responsible."

One moment, there had been arrogant conceit, haughty superiority, blithe confidence. But that had simply vanished, leaving her features cold and lovely and remote and empty of all emotion. Koichi fought the urge to shiver and whimper. "Oh? Do tell of these... notions."

"There's one thing I don't get," Koichi played along, seemingly ignorant. "Why would anyone manipulate Tsugare like this, making him lose his memories? What value does Tsugare have as someone ignorant?"

"What can he do, you mean?" Setsuka murmured. "That, Yamamoto-san, is something which will cost me to reveal them to you. Say, for example, if you were to do me a service which I shall stipulate, I will indeed tell you, with all the truth needed."

Koichi looked at her. "All I have to do is do you a favour, preferably in the future."

"Oh, yes." Setsuka smiled. "I keep my promises, you know full well."

"Ah. Fine."

"Done," Setsuka leaned forward. "Do you know the secret of his eye?"

"No," Koichi frowned.

"Then, do you know what are 'seeds'?"

Koichi frowned. "What's with the emphasis?"

"Indeed," Setsuka murmured. She looked as if Koichi had somehow reverted to a preschooler level. "'Seeds' may be referred to as special powers. There is a special power held in Tsugare's left eye that enables him to mesmerise anyone who looks into it, or even catches sight of it, hence he keeps it covered to save himself the hassle. Like your spiritual Sight, Tsugare's eye has something of value more than just the personal, no?"

"So it has power," Koichi slowly nodded. "But that doesn't answer my question about losing his memories."

"Oh, when someone loses their memory, events can happen two ways," Setsuka looked amused. "The brain invents new scenarios that fit in, or it remains faded, no? We forget all the time. However, if there is a distinct lack, it becomes more possible to suggest something else that the forgetful will accept at face value."

"In short, more open to manipulation," Koichi caught. "More likely to trust someone whom they have depended along all this while."

Setsuka sighed. "How regretful that Tsugare forgot you. I thought the both of you made a wonderful couple, even though you insist on the label of heterosexuality. Tsugare seemed rather disappointed about it, though he masked it well. The Movement has always been looking for more people with special powers. Your return with Tsugare would have been more beneficial."

"Or it could be the opposite," Koichi countered. "The one thing that can change a person is meeting another. I've heard from a little bird, a couple of comments here and there, more questions and what I know about Tsugare himself."

"Then, by all means, tell me, and I shall ensure you leave this building alive," Setsuka smiled.

"Tsugare once served as a pawn of the Movement, probably a very useful one," Koichi began, deciding to ignore the plainly veiled implication. "Then Misawa-kun came, and he took his life back, but remain essentially chained to the Movement. Your mother, and later you, used him for... rather unsavoury missions as bait, which requires something of the small-boned and feminine, not to mention pretty and intelligent, which is a godsend of a combination. Someone who fits the profile, intelligent really, but simple, trusting."

"A more beguiling combination has not been thought of," Setsuka agreed.

"But then, I come along. Tsugare gets closer to me. You know all caged birds, that even with food and water, they still think of freedom. I don't think Tsugare got much affection because of his face or his power, but I am here, and he seems to like me and I look like I reciprocate. Must be a shocker for you. And then, somehow, you realise that Tsugare begins to trust me. And you know that any member can request a post with businesses allied with the Movement. Tsugare could easily follow me to London. I might not reciprocate, I might cause him heartbreak, but the key is that Tsugare might get used to life outside the Movement. He's not close to his family, he's not really trusting of anyone but you, the Boss who cared for him even after Madame Shimotsuki died."

A moment of silence that told a lot of things stretched as the two faced each other.

"What is your point, Yamamoto-san?" Setsuka neutrally asked at last.

Koichi leaned forward. "One way or another, you engineered it. You took away his memory of me. He forgets, and as a result he trusts you even more. Enough to sign his life to the Movement if needed." Koichi shook his head. "I'm disappointed in you, Setsuka. You're turning into another Divine, manipulating Tsugare like this."

Setsuka's face remained carefully blank. "Oh? Is that what you really think?"

"Hmm... a little bird said that Tsugare was at the centre of all this," Koichi mulled. "The how is not as important as the why. Why did he forget only me? Conclusion: I was influencing him. Who loses out the most from my influence of Tsugare? Not the family; he's not close. Only the Arcadia Movement, which monopolises his time."

"But there are psychics who have left the Movement," Setsuka pointed out.

"Not someone like Tsugare," Koichi shook his head. "You said it. He has a power to control people. That's really useful and dangerous. Obviously you wouldn't want to lose control of it. So, let's start from the top. You took his memories, somehow manipulated Tsugare into not believing my words, and in short get him away from me, all to make sure the mistake doesn't repeat twice. Tsugare becomes more embroiled in the Movement, maybe, he'll even become a pawn again. Am I right?"

Setsuka shook her head. "I can clearly tell that you have exhausted all logical faculties, and come to a sensible conclusion. Yes, it is logical, and yes, Tsugare's continued membership to the Movement would have been a bonus. Yet, that is it; a bonus. I would not mind letting him go if he were happy, a fact I have demonstrated was never my target."

Koichi's expression fell flat. "Huh?"

The corners of Setsuka's mouth lifted in an admonishing smile. "I take it that this is the portion of the conversation where I reveal my plans to you?"

"What have you got to lose?"

"And apparently, you expect me to include any vulnerabilities I might have as well," Setsuka murmured. "I am wounded by the lack of professional respect that implies."

Koichi ground his teeth. "Chicken."

Setsuka smiled widely. "A hint, then. You said it yourself. The one thing that can change a person is meeting another."

Her smile seemed to become more sinister as Koichi's face slowly drained of all colour. "Your aim was me?" Koichi spluttered.

"Humans are predictable, up to a point." Part of her face twitched. "You have a noted chivalrous streak of a sort. Tsugare is exactly the type that would inspire that. I placed him with you because I guessed that you would feel attached to him."

"So you thought that I'd fall in love with him?" Koichi disgustedly countered.

"Love," Setsuka whispered. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. But need. You underestimate the simple things. All of you have that tendency to mistake one thing for another, though they aren't mutually exclusive. It was a possibility, but I am patient. And it got the desired result, one way or another."

Her eyes glittered. "Tell me. When was the last time flesh, new and strange to your hand, lay quivering beneath you, hmm?" She leaned forward until her eyes were inches from him. There was winter mint and something lush and corrupt, like rotted flowers, on her breath. "When was the last time you could taste and feel some little lovely's cries? I placed you with Misawa Tsugare for one, and only one reason; he was pretty, intelligent, and entirely what you would seek in a partner. His gender had never been a concern."

Koichi's mouth went dry at the sight of Setsuka like this; cold, intelligent, utterly devoid of compassion... "You used Tsugare to get to me."

Setsuka smiled. It was undoubtedly not meant to be nice. "Go on."

"Love, need, whatever, you waited until I had an attachment to him," Koichi slowly reasoned. "Then you cut him off from me. Some psychological pain, something about unexpected separation. Tsugare clings on to you more in the loss of his memories. I go digging. You take the excuse to kill me, or something."

He was hysteric, he was sure of it. The clue had been apparent all along. "Oh god. Tsugare was the honey-trap all this time. And he never knew it."

The next thing he knew, he was on his knees, shivering, and she was shaking her head, still behind her desk. The Cloudians were shifting, he noted as his breath began to appear as a smoky cloud usually associated with cold. They were trying to pull him away from her...

"Why?" he echoed. "I don't understand."

Setsuka regarded him, eyes cool and distant. "You haven't guessed? Well, then I suppose you shall remain ignorant."

Something flashed in his eyes as Koichi sucked in a breath of surprisingly chilly air. "You can't make him forget forever. He'll remember, and then he'll be asking plenty of questions. Then you'll lose him, and the Misawa will be on your tail."

Setsuka smiled in a very annoying way. As one would to a child who had just proclaimed that the moon was made of cheese. She still made it eerie. "No, Yamamoto-san, I think not. The brain, you see, is a complex instrument. If it can be convinced that something did not happen, it will invent all kinds of scenarios to maintain that illusion. Even if the conscious accepts something, the subconscious would have been convinced otherwise. The only way his memories would be returned to him would be if the subconscious cannot present a reasonable argument – say if irrefutable evidence was presented."

Her face remained unchanged as Koichi's hands began to crack under his knuckles.

"I once made someone ram a Swiss Army knife into his hand," she idly remarked. "One of my better moments of proof, despite the improvisation. What should I do with you?"

"Well, it's not like you have any use for me," Koichi pointed out.

"Very true. I could ask you to take the express way down..."

Koichi followed her gesture to look at the large windows overlooking approximately thirty storeys above sea level. "You're serious."

"You'd leave, alive, for a few moments at any rate," Setsuka mused. "I did promise. I will keep those promises."

She would do it, Koichi knew, and only feel guilty about the cost of cleaning the side-walk. "I didn't do anything against the Movement. I didn't do anything against you, period. I don't understand."

The Cloudians gathered around him, agitated. Her eyes flicked to them for a moment before turning on him. "Your understanding is not compulsory. But, it is business. Just so you understand, I am not the one with a grudge against you. In fact, quite the opposite. I'd rather like keeping a favour from you."

"Erm, thank you?" Koichi hazarded. On some days, the wrong answer had disappeared the wrong people.

"Well, if you could oblige me now by being intelligent enough to figure out what is going on?"

"Okay... you're the Winter Queen according to Ryuusei, whatever that means," Koichi hurriedly muttered to himself, reviewing the facts. "A spirit queen. Ryuusei's the only one who can match you, so he says... Oh. This is about my job, isn't it?"

"And it is about mine, to a point," Setsuka did not look amused. "I am to care for my subjects where needed."

"So... someone asked you," Koichi hurriedly linked. "Or requested, or petitioned, I don't know the term, to get me. And you can't just let me go... why?"

"Because then you will compromise my honour," Setsuka primly answered. "I have a reputation to maintain."

"Right. Good call. So... there's an opponent you can't afford to offend in your own sphere, and you're using me?" Koichi guessed.

"Rather sharp, aren't you?"

"That's why I'm still alive," he reasoned. "I mean, there's no rational motive to keep me here when you could tell me to... take the express way down?"

"Very true. What, then, do you expect I would ask of you?"

"It's not the Movement, so it's a Duel spirit," Koichi reasoned. "It's here, instead of in the other world, or you wouldn't go to so much trouble to get me. I'm a known specialist in such cases. You didn't want to hire me, or you can't hire me. So you use Tsugare as bait one way or another to draw me in and get me to investigate. Rather roundabout, don't you think?"

"It would have to be rather roundabout, if you wanted to continue enjoying your state of living," Setsuka mused.

Koichi looked betrayed as he stood, or tried to stand. His legs failed him. "I don't understand. What's your reason in all this? The most expedient way would be to kill me and control Tsugare. But you're not, in fact you're leaving loopholes."

"No one ever said that your understanding was compulsory," Setsuka lightly answered, though Koichi could almost taste the barely hidden impatience. "I have told you the answers you seek, and therefore my end of the bargain is completed. You yet owe me. You are mine. Or perhaps... I'll have to give him an offer to free you while you yet live. He would give much for you, wouldn't he? He gave his memory of you to save your life, after all."

He fixed her with a hard gaze and said, "You will stay away from him."

"I will do as I please," she said. "With him – and with you."

He scowled at her. "You will not. I don't belong to y-"

"Oh, but you do," It was unsettling, to see a face so lovely look so wholly alien, as though something lurked behind those features that had little in common with humanity. "Until you have worked off your debt to me, you are mine. There is a phrase, I think, that is oddly appropriate for this situation, but I doubt you would appreciate it. You see, it is in everyone's interests that you remain alive."

Just hearing her made the room feel much colder.

"...Ryuusei was right."

Cold, alien features wavered slightly. "Sorry?"

Behind them, the locked door cracked with the sound of breaking wood and bent steel, that could only come from blunt force trauma. Setsuka turned to face it, her face twitching slightly before it smoothed over to boredom. A moment later, it clicked open and swung to reveal a panting Ryuusei.

"Caledfwlch this time?" Setsuka commented, unfazed as Ryuusei stalked in, only pausing to ease the door shut. The room abruptly warmed, as if the cold were momentarily chased away by his very presence.

"Long story," Ryuusei said as he moved to the desk. "Sorry about the door, but you really shouldn't lock it anyway."

"Come, have a seat," Setsuka motioned to another chair, waiting until the seat had been taken before continuing, albeit in a more pleasant voice: "Now, we are discussing possibilities. Well, theoretically speaking, what was I manipulating you to do that a teenager figured out before you did, Yamamoto-san?"

Koichi coughed for a moment, awkwardly looking away. "That, even if you dick around with us, regularly threaten, and outright hurt sometimes, under the layers and layers of shadows... there might be good intentions."

Her face remained carefully blank.

"I explained the situation about the Naturia Forest to him," Ryuusei answered. "It took a while, and he probably understood it only now. The leaders of Summer and Winter both hate each other, and they intend to continue feuding under the guise of betting, right? Yamamoto-san is a danger not just because he can see spirits, but also because he can control Cloudians. Rather embarrassing for the Queen of Air and Darkness."

"I do not share that opinion," came the frosty reply.

"But not everyone might agree," Ryuusei picked up. "Don't worry, I don't think it's embarrassing either. I remembered, no matter how evil or uncaring you might have seemed, you've always done it for the good of the Arcadia Movement and its members. Even if the means are morally suspect and... expedient and unorthodox and possibly involving the torture of many people, people have improved from it. Your constant abuse of Tsugare built up his confidence because you remind him that even despite everything, there's at least one thing he can do. For Kaido-san, you gave him sanctuary and books and research, but also made him work for you. For me, you let me have my own way, but I had to regularly run into danger when a psychic went mad around me. Rex and Chase, they complain, but they don't seem to have any problems with it."

Her expression was chilly as a glacier. "Now we are discussing possibilities. What are you trying to say?"

"That I was so caught up in the cruelty of the Winter Queen, I forgot to consider the human aspect of Shimotsuki Setsuka," Ryuusei breathed. "That people were so caught up in the 'monster' aspect, they forget that behind the mask, there's a well-meaning child who wants the best for those members of the Arcadia Movement, out of prudence if not actual goodwill. You didn't want Tsugare-san and Yamamoto-san to suffer at the hands of spirits. So that even if they're hurt, it's better than if they're dead. Am I not right? You've been evading Yamamoto-san's questions the whole time. Isn't it better if you admit it... Setsuka?"

"...To answer: possibly, I could not have engaged anyone directly," she whispered. "Perhaps, I would have sent Tsugare over to Britain anyway. Yet you came. It was a fortunate occurrence. I was left with very few options that did not involve anyone's murder, you see."

"Egad," Koichi stared. "We have ourselves a female Vetinari. A benevolent tyrant of the Movement."

"You overestimate me, Yamamoto-san," came the quiet reply.

Koichi sank into his chair. "We were so absorbed, we never asked."

"Yes."

"And you wouldn't have given us a direct answer. Or you couldn't have."

"...Yes."

"Well, why didn't you tell us?" Koichi yelled.

"I felt it would be preferable for you to realise it of your own accord," was the mild answer.

"Hence the numerous hoops of deduction through which we have so recently been urged to leap, sans your usual benefit of exposition," Ryuusei concluded.

"As usual, you have a habit of grasping the gist of the problem when suitably pressed for time and life," Setsuka countered. "I also note that you have been taking vocabulary lessons from Marguerite."

Koichi could only stare at their banter. "You know, outright telling us would have been a lot easier."

"Oh, but I couldn't have," Setsuka batted her eyelids. "Since the Summer and Winter monarchs are supposed to be above the politics of Duel spirits, or at least politely turning blind eyes when spirits are involved with mortal-kind upon invitation, I was left with very little time and space by which to act in a manner that would protect my reputation and fulfil my aims."

"Because you needed the Summer monarch to appear kind to your cruelty." Marguerite appeared, floating.

Ryuusei turned from Marguerite to her so fast that his neck might have broken from whiplash. "You were working for the good guys all along." Setsuka opened her mouth, but Ryuusei beat her to it: "Okay, the... less morally repugnant. Something like that. When you stuck Yamamoto-san with Tsugare-san... you were matchmaking?"

"What?" Koichi yelped.

"...I decided that an averagely intelligent, rather interestingly gifted and confirmed straight bachelor might be a suitable friend, if not heterosexual life partner or partner for Tsugare," Setsuka did not meet anyone's eyes.

Ryuusei began a coughing fit the moment Koichi looked betrayed. The coughing soon graduated into a full-out bout of laughter.

"I don't believe you," Koichi hoarsely moaned. "That's like, the epic fail of all plans. You mean that we'd all have been better is I began to overtly molest him or something? How did you even decide that? And the worst thing is, it worked. How?"

Setsuka looked tired. "A lot of planning, consideration of psychology, and several other isolating factors. The fact that both of you were soon oblivious about each other was a bonus."

Ryuusei stopped laughing soon enough, finally taking a good look at her. She looked weary, in a way that had to do with placing the welfare of others before self for a very long time and enduring the responsibilities of fully half the realm of spirits on top of the Arcadia Movement, even though most of the latter responsibilities had been quickly delegated.

Shimotsuki Setsuka had never administered a reign of terror, he reminded himself. Just the occasional light shower. Although some of her methods were still morally suspect, it had been for good intentions. Nobody had died for it, and perhaps, even without the death of Satonaka Ryuuga, she would have found a method to protect Tsugare. Unless...

"You've never really been evil, did you?" Ryuusei softly murmured. "And your motive had always been to protect them."

"I trusted that you would understand before long," Setsuka leaned back in her throne-like chair, gripping the armrests. "I am Winter, violent, vicious and merciless. You are Summer, peaceful, merciful and gentle. There are rules that dictate that we are supposed to oppose one another."

"But why so roundabout? Would you have told me?"

"I have more to risk," Setsuka tapped a tattoo on one armrest, her other hand lifting to perch her chin on obligingly. "You know that each sides have their own monsters and fundamentally opposite natures, although they are both capable of more or less the same. You have seen the impact Marguerite wrought upon this world, with merely her own power and determination. I have a whole kingdom of monsters I need to control. Imagine how I must feel."

"Yeah, I get that," Ryuusei frowned.

"I can't imagine," was the dry reply from Koichi, yet his voice trembled.

"I'll help," Ryuusei volunteered. "There's no need for this senseless gamble, is there? It basically means that no matter who wins, Yamamoto-san is screwed, right?"

"Perhaps," Setsuka relented.

"Then, let's make it so that no one wins," Ryuusei resolved. "Look... I'm new to all of this, but I'm pretty sure that you don't want this petty rivalry to continue. So, could we possibly put these things aside first? As King of Summer... and as Queen of Winter... could we start an example to those we lead? Please, Shimotsuki. Work with me here. You don't have to make it work alone anymore."

Setsuka looked doubtful. For a moment, his heart leapt in his chest, before she shrugged. "Let us open negotiations, then."

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