Boss Rush

XLIX: Curse of Fate

The funeral of Rowena Cortez was about as much as could be expected. There were people in bespoke suits and veils for the fashionable, a sea of white, and a monk to preside over the wake.

The absence of any family members was glossed over, perhaps in honour of the dead.

"She didn't have any family?" Chase asked.

"The Cortez people... are not coming," was Setsuka's flat response. Jimmy and her wore black armbands for the moment, as did the trio of Team Black Knights and the rest of Team Night Sky. "Suicide can be interpreted very differently to many people."

Worse than any details, was the utter lack of details. Aside from disclosing fully the nature of her death, Rowena Cortez seemed mainly to be an excuse for the Thespian people that she had worked with to socialise and drink and gossip. Some awkwardly introducing themselves or others, showing how that they had barely ever heard of each other. No one cried or looked mournful, rather there was a form of resigned acceptance. Rowena Cortez may well be as effective as a ghost.

"There's... no one..." Ryuusei breathed.

"Course not." Jimmy's mouth screwed in a moue of distaste. "You know how suicides are like. Setsuka...?"

"Her plays and possessions will be sold off to pay for this funeral, and the remains distributed to the bereaved," Setsuka's tone suggested that the Cortez family was doing anything but. "She was born alone, she lived alone, she died alone. Very befitting."

"You don't seem very shocked," Rex pointed out.

"Rowena-san and I were passing ships in the night," Setsuka merely shrugged. "To feel anything other than pity for her is unknown to me."

"Setsuka..." Jimmy groaned, taking her hand.

"This is her life," Ryuusei looked torn. "And no one is here. No one cared."

Setsuka glanced at him. "Will caring about them help save them?"

"No!" the boy with red bangs groaned. "But... someone should have cared..."

"Then I'll continue not to make that mistake."

"And you find that easy, do you?"

"Yes, very." One eyebrow arched. "Is that news to you?"

"No..." he paused. "No."

If attending one funeral was not enough, Ryuusei dragged both friends to Erika's funeral as well. It was a startling contrast of muted respects and near-silence, and maybe sympathetic whispers.

"Ishihara!" Chase greeted in surprise as he spotted a familiar pair of goggles. "You're here!"

Takeshi nodded quickly to all three of them, before inclining his head towards Jimmy and Setsuka. "Paying... respects."

"Very... nice," Rex shifted awkwardly.

"The doctors said it was brain damage," Takeshi's expression morphed to polite puzzlement that seemed a thin veneer to a knowing expression. "Something about the neurons being fried out. It was a wonder she didn't keel over faster."

Ryuusei twitched involuntarily as he felt the force of a cold-eyed stare. So did Chase.

"Indeed." the bite of her voice was slow and carefully measured. "And here are the rest."

Kiyomi blanched when he caught sight of Setsuka, but Alexianna and Kaname strolled up to catch a few words with them.

"Shimotsuki-san," Kaname politely greeted. "I hope my brother didn't try anything too overt."

"He may have made a misguided attempt upon my life, but I am told that it was with the best of intentions," Setsuka politely replied. "I am glad that you are about, Kaname-san."

Takeshi could not quite dampen the flinch that came, and neither could Alexianna for the sake of her fiancé. Kaname's smile now looked strained.

"Setsuka..." Jimmy muttered, taking her hand firmly. "Sorry, it's that time of the month where she's bitchy."

Setsuka's lips parted, and she rounded on him. "No, it is certainly not that time, and you would know it."

A snicker escaped from Rex, leading to a withering look from the ice-queen.

"Enough jokes." Takeshi slowly mumbled. "They're going... to the crematorium."

The two radically different funerals aside, the coffins were delivered to the same crematorium, and a tearful Koyomi delivering the speech. Then, the coffins were rolled away... and that was that. The end of two lives, two radically different lives, sent to be consumed into fire and ashes and then possibly scattered to the winds...

Koyomi sniffed. "No one was there... not for them."

Ryuusei nodded to her. "You were there, Yoshisawa-san. I think... they would have been very thankful."

Her answer was to blow her nose on a tissue.

Even when the parade had left, even as the crematorium was deserted, Ryuusei remained the stare at the two podiums placed for Erika and Rowena, two small reminders that were the effective remains of two woman who had lived and died alone. "Why...?"

"This is what they do," Takeshi murmured quietly, a few steps behind him. "They screw with human lives and some of them kill for fun. But not always."

Ryuusei turned to see him, goggles cracked and still perched on his head, and his left eye shining with a single rune. "They?"

"The Summer and Winter Courts," Takeshi mumbled. "Yeats got something right when he divided them like that."

"They did this?" Ryuusei shook his head. "I... I don't know. I couldn't have-"

"It was an accident?" Takeshi suggested, tapping his glowing eye on the eyelid. "I can see. Summer fire burned Erika's neurons to shreds. Winter ice fixed the damage to Rowena's hindbrain and allowed her judgement to be impaired. You're a curse by fate disguised as a blessing, Fudo Ryuusei."

Ryuusei was about to argue when Takeshi sank down to the steps leading up to the Rex Goodwin Cemetery, where the crematorium was placed. "I think... I thought I knew. Your fate, and the fate of Shimotsuki Setsuka, were complementary yet opposite. She was the blessing disguised as the curse, and you were the curse disguised as a blessing. Both of you hold vast powers and you didn't realise it... until now."

Ryuusei waited.

Takeshi continued. "I... Harald-shishou determined that Shimotsuki would be the greatest threat. To everything. I... loved Lexi, but... I wanted her to live. I was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. And in the end, I... lost. Shimotsuki would have killed me if Lexi wasn't there. I suffered at the hands of the Ice Barrier monsters, but I lived, and I could make up with Lexi. I think... I might have gotten it wrong... but she's just as much a monster now."

"They're dead," Ryuusei insisted. "Do... do these happen all the time?"

"No," Takeshi whispered. "Sometimes worse. Homeless people disappearing from the streets, imprisoned and enslaved. Passers-by getting their heads chopped off and their blood used for no other reason than to dye caps red. Drowned people with their bodies eaten and only the liver remaining, if there was any. Unwitting people seduced by spirits and left to pine and waste away or fighting to the death. And at the head of these... are the rulers. Either one could cause the end of the world should they open the gates. We, as in Harald-shishou and I and the others before us, thought that... that we could save the world. Because if one fate exists, the other must. If one of you were to... disappear, then the other would be released from their fate."

You have two paths, one of the knight, and one of the monster. Yet, these two paths exist, because the other exists, but, neither can live while the other survives...

"Will I stop if Shimotsuki is gone?" Ryuusei finally spoke up. "I don't think so. It's not so convenient, life. It could be me, you could kill me, and Shimotsuki's fate would be averted. So why?"

Takeshi could not answer that.

"This prophecy..." Ryuusei looked at the other man, who took a step back. "It states that the end of the world would happen because we do something. By accident, or design? I did not tell Rowena-san to jump. I did not tell Erika-san to die. But I feel responsible anyway." He leaned forward. "Kill me, then, and Setsuka's fate would be over. But you can't, can you?"

Takeshi remained silent.

"You keep thinking of us as specific individuals," Ryuusei's words were bitter. "But they aren't individuals. They're mantles of power, roles, positions. The person in them is basically an interchangeable part. The mantle also changes whoever wears it. It won't stop. Maybe you can delay it, ten years, twenty years, maybe longer. But not forever. That's what it is. The seasons turn and turn and turn, and you cannot stop time for all of your power, Ishihara Takeshi."

Takeshi swallowed and glanced up, where the clouds were beginning to rotate. "Is that a- Holy-"

Ryuusei ignored it, as lightning with no thunder flickered weirdly through the clouds. Birds exploded into the skies from all around, joining a host of chirping sparrows in mad circling. Warmth gathered, hot and bright and intense. The clouds started to lower, and the frantic birds tightened their circle, until they were a wall of shining feathers and glittering eyes overhead of Takeshi – and by overhead, that was directly over his head.

A flash of light, a toll of thunder that sounded vaguely musical, and Takeshi stumbled back as lightning struck at his feet, sending glowing bits of charred autumn grass scattering with a shower of earth.

Ryuusei's hand was still up, where he had pushed Takeshi back from being struck. "I... I'm sorry. My control is horrible these days."

Takeshi nodded solemnly. "I know. Lexi had worse before. But... I don't think it's as bad as your current case."

"What is?"

"You're... acting out," Takeshi carefully chose, looking at the shivering trees and the matinee of birds that continued to circle them and the markers. "You're alone, making unilateral decisions. Harald-shishou once told me that the Aesir could be used all by one person, really, and I agree. With Vanadis, it's very simple to summon all three of them. But... that's not how it's used. The one with all three must search for the others, and give them the Aesir that chose them. Because... one can wield the power of all three, but they lose something... very important. Experience."

"I don't think I understand." Ryuusei softly murmured.

"For one person... to be separated from the world by simple understanding is very cruel," Takeshi murmured. "For those who wield the Polar Star Emperors... perhaps they are like the Signers once; divided and bound to fate. But... they were not alone. The trickster, the warrior, and the hero banding together, joining forces that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. And that is why usually only one Aesir is used per Duelist. You... should talk to someone. About this. About everything. And then... get warm. Eat something hot. Sleep; you look like hell."

The last one did not surprise Ryuusei, but the first two did. "Why?"

Takeshi considered. "It is easier... to sleep when you are warm and fed. And easier to be hopeful. And to think."

"Is that wisdom from the Rune Eye?"

"...No," was the short reply. "The Eye grants... insight. Not wisdom. And this advice... is very human."

Back at the headquarters of the Arcadia Movement, Michiru was tagging behind Setsuka, whining.

"We really can't go, Setsuka?" Michiru pleaded.

"Not with James here," Setsuka shook her head. "He doesn't know. He shouldn't know."

"Then let him know. Come on..."

"Michiru-san, you have enough self-control not to go clubbing every night."

"We don't go clubbing! We see the world of spirits and celebrate with them!"

Setsuka arched an eyebrow. "It's not that nice, you know. My court is known as the Unseelie for a very good reason."

"Yeah, but with them you know that they can't help it," Michiru scowled. "It's their nature. Humans just choose to be cruel and unkind."

"They don't know," was the placid answer.

"You know, Setsuka!" Michiru stepped forward to block her. "You're the only one I can call a friend! You could... you could... I want to join you. I've always wanted power to say no. So, Setsuka... please, let me step into this world."

"You... are already far too involved, if that were possible," slowly, Setsuka lifted one hand to cradle Michiru's cheek.

"You wish to abandon the world of humans." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes," Michiru breathed. "I wish to be powerful, and Duelists are the most powerful in the world of spirits."

Something sparked in her cold blue eyes, intelligent amusement combined with lack of pity. "Yet they are monsters."

"It is in their nature," Michiru breathed. "I don't care. I want certainty."

"So it is. And so it is in ours," Setsuka agreed. "I am thankful for your companionship, Michiru-san. I thank you for your patience and assistance in this matter. You could have reacted differently but chose not to. It will not be forgotten, I assure you."

Michiru's breath caught in her throat, and she was unable to react when Setsuka neatly sidestepped her to walk away, her hips sashaying as she did.

Jimmy glanced up as Setsuka walked in. "Hi, hon-" he was cut off forcibly as she took his face in both hands and planted one full on the lips. They broke off a few seconds later, panting. "Wow, you missed me," Jimmy licked his bottom lip. "I..."

"Very good," Setsuka granted a toothy smile on him. The smile looked a bit strained as her glance was cast towards the suitcase. "You're going back." She casually observed.

"Crisis management," Jimmy muttered. "Down under is reporting weird stuff popping up. I'll be leaving tonight."

"A shame," the girl's eyelashes fluttered. "Perhaps I could attract some attention if I casually mentioned the second garter I bought?"

"The... second... garter..." Jimmy stared at her.

Shrugging, she stretched her arms lazily, as if she were done with both the topic and the fellow participant in the conversation. "I believe it is time for me to retire for the night. And I do believe that the garter is sewn of purple silk."

"I shall accompany you."

"Not. So. Fast."

Jimmy halted all movement and stood there peering in her direction disbelievingly. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean," she slowly enunciated. "That there are a number of conditions to be met."

Crossing his arms, he smiled at her curiously. "What sort of conditions?"

"I have had a rather tedious time of it while you were down under." She tapped her fingers on her chin. "If you wish to join me, there are one of two small tasks I may ask of you."

"I do not think I would be averse to granting any such favours," he slowly murmured. "Allow me to volunteer"

"These favours are rather off the beaten track," she quipped. "They are not the sort of thing one discusses in polite society, but I nevertheless expect you to comply. That is the first condition."

"Only the first?" he cracked back. "And the second?"

"The second... allows for considerably less effort on your part," she replied languidly. "But be warned, that I have every intention of doing things to you."

"Have you?" he queried, the excitement tangible in the air. "Terrible things?"

"Unforgivable things," she replied slowly, still keeping a straight face.

"Then I shall make every effort not to reveal I am enjoying it," he replied, just as seriously.

"That is undoubtedly for the best," she languidly answered. "I should lose all respect for you otherwise." She made for the door, leaving it ajar.

Very slowly, he put down the file and was about to hot-foot it out of the office when the mood was entirely ruined by a scream. This was immediately followed by a burst of arctic wind.

Jimmy groaned, any excitement as the promise having faded as he made the single-storey leap down to the main lobby from the second floor. Some people, the receptionist Yamashita and a few other janitors were busy cleaning the lobby. Large parts of the waxed floor looked as if it were unable be any cleaner, but all along the path there were drops of blood and next to the entrance was a white sack whose contents did not need to be left to the imagination. Beside the sack was traces of frost and the crisp cold air that generally heralded Setsuka's icy power.

Jimmy quickly ran out, his brown eyes scanning the skies for something. It was not long before he found it; the wings of the Blue Ice White Night Dragon, spread against an orange-painted sky.

"Setsuka!" he called as following the dragon took him near the Puzzle Area, and he quickly drew a full five-card hand. Already he was the head of the Australian Arcadia Movement, and in his element. There was not a single hooligan who could beat him now.

There were screams and shouts, and then a blast of frost coating the ground just missed him. He crossed his eyes; there, already the tell-tale signs of foggy vapour was here.

There was a sickening crack, probably bones broken. The heads of the Arcadia Movement were traditionally believers in incapacitation before interrogation, or at least starting from the second generation onwards. Accusations of police brutality tended to wane once people saw the treatment rogue members received, far more overkill than should be needed.

"I am not feeling very kind right now," Setsuka's voice was plain, airy, and hidden with barbs. "I am not feeling like my elegant, professional, calm, calculated self. You therefore have the right to remain silent-"

"This is police-" the man was cut off by the application of a foot to the sternum. Something cracked under the shoe.

"Like I said," Setsuka's icy tone continued. "You have the right to remain silent. you have the right to a lawyer the moment you get to the NDPD officers. And, technically this is a case of citizen's arrest, which in that case any and all injuries are listed under self-defence. Furthermore, the causing of grievous injury and death leads to further charges of resisting arrest on the arrested, therefore you are crippling your own case the moment you tried to run. Now, who hired you?"

"Freak!" the man hissed. "You're a monster, you and your unnatural ways!"

Setsuka's eyes narrowed. "Another peasant monomaniac."

The man rushed, and Setsuka side-stepped, but she was not fast enough. A thin trickle of blood welled on her wrist as she cradled it close to herself.

"Well, looks like the Ice Queen bleeds like anyone else," the man leered, holding the K-Bar knife close. "Can't fight back now, eh, bitch? Maybe I'll dump your body on the steps next."

Setsuka's eyes narrowed. "You make three wrong assumptions. The first is to assume that I would be the one falling in this battle."

The unkempt criminal gaped as a shoe found its way into his groin, quickly followed by an elbow planted in the solar plexus and a push for his back to hit the floor, followed by a drop-kick that crushed his windpipe.

"The second is to assume that I could not fight back without my powers or focus," Setsuka continued, grinding her shoe into the man's windpipe, crushing his voice-box under her heel. "The third, and last, mistake of your very life itself, is to touch those I protect, and assume that I will not kill you."

The shoe lifted, and a tentative breath drawn was just as quickly expelled as Setsuka aimed a vicious kick to his side and reached down for his skull. The man groaned in pain, the groans growing more intense along with the sickening cracks that echoed.

"I am going to peel your life open, and the NRA is going to take every penny you have." She hissed. "And that's not even counting the mystical and shadowed colleagues I'm going to call up and suggest that they take a nice, long look at you. I'm not going to kill you, I'm not going to torture you. Because I won't have to. Because, with what I'm going to do to you, I wouldn't want it to be over too quickly. I'm going to ruin you. By the time I'm through, at least with step one, you won't have a home. You won't have a cent to your name, or a friend in the world. You'll be on the street. You won't have a dime to buy even a knock-off knife at a junk store, let alone something good. And then, then... Then, we can start having fun."

The man was fairly trembling now. A faint smell of urea permeated the air, and a wet patch appeared where the man's crotch would be. Setsuka saw it, and her teeth appeared a bit more, even and white.

Jimmy swallowed, trying not to feel intimidated himself. The legends of the Cold Queen defenestrating people off the Empire State Building suddenly seemed very real...

"You're going to spend a long, long time running, I promise you. And you'll be doing it on foot, because you won't be able to afford a car. You'll be doing it out of piss-houses and train sheds. You're going to be nothing. For however long it takes for me to catch up with you. For however long it takes for me to get bored. You'd be amazed how patient I can be. Run, little man, and tell everyone that my hounds bay for your blood."

Jimmy froze as the baying of hounds, ghostly in the dusky evening, approached, growing louder and louder. It did not take long before true monsters, great slobbering hounds with jaws large enough to swallow basketballs whole, emerged from the shadows to surround the hapless fool. For once, he pitied the man for what was to come. Even if this was a new punishment... "S- Setsuka...?" he whispered.

Never hearing him, Setsuka gave a short bark of cruel laughter. "Sic 'em."

"Oh God," Jimmy breathed as the man ran and the hounds advanced upon him.

"You took his advice," Marguerite's tone was unreadable, even for Ryuusei.

Ryuusei paused mid-way through spooning through the reheated chicken gruel. "Seemed like good advice at the time."

Marguerite lingered by the pantry, her ghostly touch lingering on the handle before she huffed, instead perching herself on the counter to glance at the back of his head. "It is at times very difficult to be so closely interwoven to mortals."

"For you?" Ryuusei gave her a suspect look as he ladled a bowl out.

"For all Duel Spirits."

"Care to explain?" he turned to the fridge.

"We appear much as humans, do we not?" Marguerite wrung her hands. "Most of our folk do – or else they resemble another creature of the mortal world. Hounds, birds, stags, and so forth. Some are... more outlandish, but still conceivable by mortals."

"Yes...?"

"You are endlessly fascinating." Marguerite explained. "We move in time to the mortal seasons and aeons. We dance to mortal music, make our homes like mortal dwellings, follow the rules of mortal games. We conceive our children with mortals, we can become mortals, like mortals can become one with us spirits. We find parts of ourselves becoming more like them, and yet we are not like them. Many of the things they think and feel, and a great many of their actions, are inexplicable to us."

"We don't really understand ourselves all that well yet. I think it would be very difficult for you to do it." He then blinked. "Wait. Conceive? As in... er, copulation?"

Marguerite smirked, a cool expression that often graced her features. "That's true, isn't it? And yes, to your from your world end up in other dimensions all the time, and vice versa. Changelings of our world and mortal worlds have existed for centuries. Unless they're really weak, they can usually stay tangible in this dimension, too."

"But you've got a point to make," Ryuusei brought out the store of green tea powder. "Or you wouldn't have brought up the subject."

"I do," she said. "Summer is hot, but never so such that the entire forest burns with it."

"You've got to have a fire before it can burn."

"You do."

The sound of boiling water pouring tinkered for a while. "You're saying that I have a chance to stay me. To... ignore these urges of the mantle of power. That I wouldn't end up like Tytannial."

"I'm saying many things," Marguerite archly replied. "Do you have a chance to remain yourself, despite the tendency of the mantle to mould your thoughts and desires? All of us, Winter and Summer alike, have that chance. Most fail."

"But it's possible?"

She looked at him, and her eyes were deeper than time. "Anything is possible."

"Ah," he said, understanding. "We're not really talking about me, are we?"

"We are," she said serenely, turning her eyes away. "And we are not."

"What are we talking about, exactly?"

Marguerite smiled at him.

Ryuusei decided upon a few responses and discarded them for the sheer truth that they were varying degrees of unacceptable, and got started on the bowl. It was very warm, without being scalding. He felt better already, and therefore less inclined towards violent tendencies.

"I'm back- Nii-chan?" Seika paused in the doorway. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." Ryuusei huffed in a breath. "We went back after the two funerals."

Seika nodded quietly. "And Setsu-chan?"

"As usual, I guess," Ryuusei cocked her head. "Seika... how long have you not spoken to Shimotsuki already?"

Seika looked vaguely guilty. "Not since May."

May. The first of May was traditionally regarded as the coming of summer. "Oh? And she's not coming for your birthday?"

"It's..." Seika's lower lip wobbled. "I... I tried. But, Setsu-chan... she seems occupied. Even with James-san, she shouldn't be so wholly occupied. It's... weird."

"Mmm... weird how?"

"She keeps hanging around that girl, Tenjouin Michiru," Seika pouted. "Setsu-chan is ignoring me."

That... was not normal, Ryuusei readily admitted. "Maybe she's swamped in work."

"But the Arcadia Movement is mostly run by Nakamura-san now!" Seika insisted.

Ryuusei shook his head, getting up. "It'll work out, I guess. Do you want a bowl?"

"Thank you, Nii-chan!" Seika beamed. "Say, Nii-chan..."

"Yes?" Ryuusei called behind as he ladled some steaming porridge into a waiting bowl.

"Setsu-chan can see spirits. You can as well, right?"

Ryuusei nearly dropped the ladle in numb shock. "...Why?"

"Because..." Seika fidgeted. "No one... ever figured out why Madame was so keen to adopt me before. And then, she was... It's odd, I got that feeling that the Madame was... weird. Sometimes..."

"Sometimes...?" Ryuusei sat across her.

"The Sight could be prevalent," Marguerite nodded. "She has potential. All humans have it, but most are sleeping. If that potential is awakened..."

"Sometimes... I think there is a shadow behind Setsu-chan," Seika whispered. "Nii-chan... Duel Spirits can do that, right? P- Possess people?"

"...First and foremost, Shimotsuki will be Shimotsuki," Ryuusei decided to explain the little he knew in the only way he could. "That is, the Setsu-" His brain seized, unwilling to place ruthless Shimotsuki Setsuka with the girl Seika called 'Setsu-chan' in the same sentence. "-the Setsuka you know, and the Shimotsuki Setsuka the rest of the world know, are different facets of the same person. She could be planning something, for all we know. She's good at gambits that way."

Seika considered this titbit carefully. "Why?"

Because there are nastier monsters out there and she's protecting the Arcadia Movement, and these plans are how she does it. Ryuusei bit back that answer. "She... has no one else but Nakamura-san. She has had to rely on herself only for a long time."

Whatever it was, Seika nodded. "I think Setsu-chan is very lonely."

As a Psychic Duelist, as the daughter of the head, and later the head of the Arcadia Movement, as the mysteriously powerful role of the Winter Queen... maybe his little sister was on to something. "I think so too," Ryuusei murmured. "For she is Shimotsuki Setsuka before anything else. And that is a truly unique existence of itself."

Seika nodded firmly with naïve faith. "Setsu-chan will be fine. She's Setsu-chan!"

Ryuusei decided not to dissuade her of those assumptions.

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