Divine Design

'So he's an old friend from a previous drug case huh?' Himiko mused. 'You already know these guys, so I'm Kudou Himiko, Lady Poison.' she said, introducing herself to Dino.

'Nice to meet you Himiko. I'm Dino Cavallone, boss of my Squad in SISMI.' said Dino cheerfully.

'So why's a VIP hanging out in this job now?' Himiko wondered. 'Shouldn't you be uncovering some shady stuff by now?'

'I'm here on both work and personal stuff and Tsunade had me along.' said Dino. 'She wants me to see what kinda world you guys deal with in Freelancing. I want to understand how far you guys go to ensure Mission Complete and see if I can get some ideas for my squad.'

'Heee...'

'By the way Himiko, who does these remind you of?' Tsunade took out two cards without looking and showed the older girl.

The cards were Witch of Perfume and Master of Strings.

'What're these?' Himiko frowned, taking the cards.

'We got them from parents of the runaway kids we were trying to find.' said Ginji. 'Tsunade-chan drew out cards and they end up cards that's somehow similar to us.'

'I got a really bad feeling about those cards.' said Tsunade. 'I feel that there's something deeper in this than a mere card game.' she said. 'Look at your cards.' she said as she distributed the other cards. 'And look at it carefully. I feel terror grip my mind.'

'If Tsunade's here for her wonder gut...we should take this seriously.' Himiko commented. 'Witch of Perfume eh?' she mused, looking at her card. 'I'm not the only one using perfumes to hex or heal. Aromatherapy is in vogue in spas these days.'

'Same with ito-jutsu, there's 27 types in East and West Fuuchouin alone.' Kazuki added. 'But Tsunade-chan...you feel deeply scared for some reason?'

The youngest Freelancer is indeed, utterly terrified.

'...normally, I ain't buying this shit.' said Ban with a scowl. 'Its thanks to this shit that there's tons of con artists and scammers and a lot of victims. But since we have Wonder-Gut with us and her Intuition Fool-Proof...whaddya think?'

'Yeah, reeeeaaally lucky~!' a newcomer spoke up. 'Knowing Ban-kun who wouldn't have done much research, he won't take this seriously and die!'

Dino saw the Coordinator the guys usually take jobs from. Hevn. A blonde foreign woman with S-Grade T&A(according to his men). Used to be a scientist but did a career switch.

But really, her appearance can be best described as 'covering' not an 'outfit'. Who dresses this woman, honestly...

'Aa? What're you talking about, Hevn?'

"F-fast!" Dino gawked as Ban was behind Hevn in a blink, groping her melons that's clearly not a boob job by texture alone, earning him a face-bash into a concrete column.

'I was here to gather info on runaway boys!' Hevn grunted as she slammed Ban face-first into the column. 'I originally planned to hire you guys but I thought since its just runaways it wouldn't be necessary...'

'We can get jobs on our own you know.' Ban grumbled.

'Yet you didn't research those cards thoroughly.' Hevn snarked mockingly. 'If not for Tsunade-chan with you, you're dead by now. So good knowledge in dealing with this, is a must.' she said, taking out the deck she had, tossed it up, scattering it and randomly grabbed one with her eyes closed.

'...you got what's basically your job description.' Dino said as Hevn opened her eyes to see the card she got. Intermediary.

'That's it!' Himiko, fed up, grabbed Hevn's scattered deck, including her cards and put them up in neat rows. She began speaking a language they can't understand as the cards glowed and floated to their amazement. It swirled up, mixing with each other before falling down limply, but a card flew straight to Himiko being the only one glowing.

'Immoral Capital?' Himiko looked at the card.

'Huh? You a fortune-teller now?' Ban snarked while Tsunade quickly put a Flame Barrier over their group as Ginji said,

'Ban-chan? That looks bad...'

Cue the school crushing down on them.

'...lucky us...' Hevn gulped as being protected by a Flame Barrier saved them all as the rubble turned to ash on contact.

'Immoral Capital...in the bible, there were two sinful cities destroyed by God personally.' said Dino, frowning at the card. 'Sodom and Gomorrah. Only Lot and his family were spared and made to leave but Lot's wife looked back, thus she turned into a pillar of salt. It appears there's more to Japan's supernatural than Ban's fancy eyes, Ginji's electricity and Tsunade's flames. We even got a fortune-teller now.'

'I'm a witch.' Himiko corrected. 'A witch specializing in cursing and healing by using perfumes.'

'So this is the prophecy of Divine Design...huh?' Hevn gasped out as Tsunade turned off her barrier.

'This is going to be one dangerous job...' Kazuki smiled nervously.

'Hey don't wuss out, they probably got explosives in advance.' Ban scoffed.

'If there were, there should be explosions.' Dino pointed out in contradiction. 'Yet the building crumbled on us as it usually should when there's an earthquake. Cracks appeared on the building itself before it crumbled on us.'

'This looks troublesome already.' said Ban as he scratched the back of his head. 'So Hevn? Wanna team up?'

'I'm thinking of bailing already...' Hevn shuddered.

'You can't do that now, the boat already sailed! Besides, you ain't jumping ship that easy, you'd do anything for yen.'

Hevn muttered mutinously.

'But at any rate...' said Ban as he grabbed a card that flew straight at him. 'We better buck up if this is the fate that awaits us...how kind of them to say so!'

He showed them a card that reads Hill of Execution.

'Hey, does anything goes go in Freelancing?' Dino asked nervously.

'It does, all the time. You investigate your enemy and your quarry. Expect the unexpected and never let your guard down, and adapt to come what may then come up with a winning game plan. That's how we roll.' said Tsunade. 'We're not like SISMI who gets need-to-know by Mission Control or something.' Dino sweatdropped. 'As long as the client gets what they want, they don't care what we do or how we do it. Simple as that. Anyway, run. Don't ask, run.'

They did back to their cars, with Hevn, Kazuki and Himiko riding with Dino and Tsunade whose cars are bigger.

xxx

Fuyuki Residence...

'Good thing we ran...the police got there a few minutes after we bailed out!' Ginji exclaimed as it was on the news, the crumbled school.

'Yeah or that's three years in prison for the adults in the group.' said Tsunade. 'Himiko and I are OK being underage but everyone else? Charm your way out of jail if we stayed longer.'

Ban, Ginji, Hevn and Kazuki choked.

'But still, back to square one with these cards.' Ban frowned as he looked at his card.

Tsunade on the other hand, stared at hers, deeply in a trance.

'G-guys? Tsunade-chan's a little out of it...' Hevn said in concern as Tsunade was...way out of it.

'Oi!' Ban snapped his fingers at her that woke her up. 'You're way into it, Wonder-Gut.'

'S-sorry...just that...when I looked at my card again...' said Tsunade. 'I saw a blonde man take Kazuki away when we weren't looking.'

'A blonde man?' Kazuki asked, now interested.

'Yeah. He's wearing a suit and clearly knows you.' said Tsunade, pointedly looking at him. 'Normally in hostage choices, it'd be Himiko for her knowledge of witch magic as she'd be able to counter them, or Hevn-san who can't fight. But he specifically looked at, and took you.' she said. 'The next we saw you, you're under his control.' she fretted. 'When and where, I can't tell.'

Kazuki looked thoughtful now.

"A card game can do that?!" they all thought.

"After drugs its the occult this time." Dino frowned. "And her card gave her some precognitive powers only the Sky Arcobaleno can do. Could that be her future or did the card enhance her power to give her a bit of precognition?" he wondered curiously.

'Well, here's what I know.' said Hevn, giving them some files. To Dino and Kazuki.

'Tower Arts Building?' Dino blinked.

'Its the company that created the game Divine Design.' said Hevn. 'Now, the game itself isn't very well-known compared to Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon since only Cupid's Tower students knows the game...for now.' she said. 'The game is said to be very difficult as you need intensive mythology know-how and high skills in word games to play it so only smart people can play it. From what I dug up, 18 kids and their families got involved into dangerous incidents after playing these games.'

'Dangerous incidents?' Ginji asked.

'Two weeks ago, a ten years old boy committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.'

'This article?' Kazuki looked up a glued newspaper article to a bond paper.

'Authorities found an apparent suicide note next to a card in the boy's room.' Hevn spoke. 'The note only had one line that read I have no future.'

'That can mean anything.' said Dino. 'He probably messed around in school that he has no job or a job that sucks or got a terminal disease or he got into an incident...so many morbid possibilities to mean five words.(boku wa mirai ga nai)'

'What he saw is up in the air isn't it? Nobody knows what he meant by that.' said Hevn. 'But its enough to cause a child sheer despair enough to kill himself.'

'There's another boy who insists the cards saved his life. That was the Plane Crash Incident last month.'

'Last month...we were at Battleship Island at the time.' Tsunade pointed out.

'Oh, there's that weird news about two kids claiming the cards saved their lives.' said Himiko. 'They and their families were on that same plane but for different trips, but cancelled at the last minute...and then the crash happened. Apparently they foresaw the future in their cards. But in the article I saw they said 'tarot cards' not Divine Design.'

'Tower Arts apparently has power over the publishing industry.' said Hevn, after taking a bite out of some Castella. 'They pressured the tabloids to change the details. For a design company they have great power to control the publishing industry. I heard they've grown tremendously since their recent entry into a popular field called Art Therapy.'

'Art therapy huh?' Himiko huffed.

'The creepy thing is that the editor and publisher disappeared for writing that article before it got re-edited.'

'Well, how about we pay Tower Arts a visit?' Ban suggested. 'We can get some clues there.'

'You guys go but Kazuki will be a goner.' Tsunade warned. 'I'll defy that future I saw by going where my gut tells me to go but the fact that blondie will take him won't change. I'll find another way because I have a bad feeling about that building.'

'I see...' Kazuki frowned. 'Mido-kun did say one day curiosity will be the death of me but I still have to know. Curiosity may have killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back.'

'You're going to risk it huh?' Dino frowned worriedly. 'Tsunade, any more scenes?'

'No...the helping power I got is weak.' said Tsunade. 'The visions are also blurry, like a TV with bad reception. Kazuki's kidnapping by blondie is the only thing that showed up.'

'OK, let's move out.' Ban decided. 'Itomaki, with a future like that, watch out.'

'Of course.' Kazuki nodded. 'I have a feeling I know who it is. I must meet this man.'

'It's decided then.'

'We'll drop him and the girls in Honky-Tonk and we go to where Tsunade wants to go.' said Dino. 'We'll meet again in the house unless something's come up.

xxx

Mugenjou...

'Man, you used to live here? It's damn creepy...' Dino fretted nervously.

'Don't show nervousness. Don't show you're a prey.' Tsunade scolded. 'In Mugenjou, all sorts of black jokes can and will come true. Normally I'll call by phone but this is something that can't be spoken of by phone. We need to deliver the problem personally.'

'Right...'

'At any rate...it got peaceful when usually, we'd be attacked every five minutes~Makubex's done a great job being boss!' Tsunade chimed, impressed.

/Ahaha, thanks Tsunade! Its not easy though./ a speaker near them rang out. The voice was that of a young boy who has yet to 'break' his voice. /Come to visit?/

'I wish it was a normal visit, Makubex.' Tsunade sighed as Dino did a double-take. This voice is Ginji's successor?! 'One of our own, is in grave danger. Is Juubei available?'

/I am./ a deep baritone voice spoke. /Is it Kazuki since I'm specifically asked for?/ he asked anxiously.

'Aa. Our case is a bunch of runaway kids involved in sinister occult powers.' said Tsunade. 'Do you have a blonde friend among Fuuga? According to the power of the Divine Design card that represented me, I saw a vision where blondie kidnapped him. It will happen in the near future.'

/URYUU DID WHAT?!/ Juubei thundered angrily.

'He's about to do it...' Dino squeaked, his ears ringing from the angry roar.

/That makes no difference! I'm meeting you immediately!/ came the angry retort.

/...he just ran off...wait for him where you are./ said Makubex. /I'll have to ask Sakura since I have no data about Fuuga. This looks complicated. The occult is beyond me./

'No kidding. My gut tells me to go to Ura-Shinjuku's Fortune-Telling Alley. We'll be there for quite a while and by then, Kazuki's long gone.'

/Oh dear...I hope to hear from you soon alright?/

'Yeah, truth is stranger than fiction and its about to get stranger from here on out. Look up Cupid's Tower Cram School and Tower Arts Building and any info about the Divine Design Card Game. That should give you a clue on what we're up against.'

Soon, they met up with a furious Juubei.

'Juubei, join our group. We'll meet an important person who can help us combat this unusual power.' said Tsunade. 'Our powers and combat abilities is nothing and only Divine Design will work against Divine Design. We need to know how to play this game to get Kazuki back.' she said grimly.

'I see...then let's move it.' said Juubei. 'Before the Red String appears.' he said as they began walking in haste for their destination.

'Red String?' Dino inquired.

'In our allied clans wherein the Kakei serve the Fuuchouin as personal doctors and guardians, the Kakei member who studied Acupuncture and Hari-jutsu will be assigned to a Fuuchouin who they will serve for life. That Fuuchouin will then bind themselves with a Red String jutsu. When the Red String appears that only we can see, it means our liege 'strayed' and we must get them back no matter what.' he explained. 'Being clan heirs, we are bound together.'

'But if the other way around?' Dino added.

'They in turn get us back of course.' Juubei snorted. 'Its a foolproof system so when we're in danger, we'll be rescued immediately. We can still marry and have families but our priority will be our partners. I can find Kazuki on my own thanks to this thread but its as Tsunade says, I have no clue how to fight sorcery with martial arts...' he swore, utterly vexed. 'Uryuu Toshiki...he was a member of Fuuga who joined the four of us, attracted to Kazuki's grace and kindness. Unlike us who used strings, needles and cloth, he uses qi attacks to the point he can puncture a big hole in the wall with a fingerpoke. He was known as Hell's Knight in our heyday for his ruthless streak in battle and will never attack an enemy from behind. But I wonder about now if he's using sorcery when he was a proud warrior years ago...by the way, who's this?'

xxx

Ura-Shinjuku, Fortune-Telling Alley...

'Fortune-Telling Alley?' Dino eyed the place. 'But its empty.'

'This is just a front, Cavallone.' said Juubei. 'This alley's customers are people who are a step away from suicide.' he told him. 'Otherwise they come here for drugs and other illegal things in the Black Market. The things here are mild compared to what's usually sold in Mugenjou. But if not drugs, those who are so broke yet cannot get a job nor even succeed in a job that nobody'd hire them sell their organs for money. Its the sort of place this is but why're we here, Tsunade?'

'We're gonna meet the person who can help us.' she said, leading them to a place called Card Shop Kartas.

Hello there... was a woman's voice that echoed all over the card shop. Welcome...to Card Shop Kartas.

'Holy macaroniii?!' Dino freaked out as things started to float.

'Show yourself!' Juubei demanded, his needles out between his fingers ala Wolverine.

'Can it, lady, you already foresaw that we will be here.' Tsunade said snarkily. 'What do you know of Divine Design?'

Heehee...I foresaw that too...wait for a bit longer because more people will come...I'll tell you then. Its a pain repeating twice you know. Ten minutes.

'Well, we're helping ourselves to some tea then...' said Tsunade nonchalantly. 'We're paying of course.'

'Er Tsunade...the things are still floating...' Dino stammered out.

'Its Telekinesis, don't mind it.'

'Don't mind?! If Psychic Research Societies get wind real psychics exist, society's gonna turn upside down and she's using that power willy-nilly in Ura-freaking-Shinjuku?!'

Hey, I'm not that stupid! I hate scientists you know...

'There's your answer Dino.'

'...'

Ten minutes later, Ban's group came with considerable injury.

'Nanda, you're here with Needle-Boy.' Ban stated and he's in a Foul Mood. Capitalized. 'Its as you said, that ito-maki got Kamikakushi and those fucking SOBs got us. Its good Dino wasn't there or there'll be an International Incident by now! But for you to be here...'

Ooh, what could the biiig baaad boy who ran away from home ten years ago want with li'l ol me? then a woman in her thirties appeared. She's a tanned hispanic beauty, tanned skin with wild, wavy hair and...what's with the women of Shinjuku wearing coverings and not real clothes, Dino thought. Sure she has a waist-down but that fishnet top should be frigging illegal as her nipples are visible! He was HORRIFIED with a capital H.

'You should have foreseen it with your cards Maria.' Ban said in a tone that means he doesn't want any more nonsense. 'Teach me how to use these.' he held up his card.

'Oh well well well.' Maria smiled. 'Take out your cards though shades-kun doesn't have one so he can watch.' she said as when they took out their cards, Maria took them and...went for the candle.

'Hey?!' Ban yelped.

'No!' Himiko cried in alarm.

'Oi Tsunade, you didn't say anything...' Ban cried as Maria burned the cards...and flames came out.

'Whooaaa?!'

'Kyaaaa!'

'Ban make her stop!'

'You damn old hag!'

'Jeez, chillax. We won't die.' said Tsunade calmly, ignoring the flames on her own body. 'That's why I didn't say anything.'

'What's going on with you guys?' Juubei asked, utterly baffled. 'And why did you all go on fire?!'

'Powerful magic cards are spread among kids of a certain school in the form of a Card Game.' Tsunade told him. 'These cards we have are copies but still has enough power to cause trouble and the cards Maria-san burned represented us that's why flames appeared on us when she burned them. Kazuki's card the Master of Strings is an example.'

'That's right~!' Maria chirped. 'These cheap fakes doesn't have enough power to materialize your burning to death~you have talent, little lady~!' she praised. 'On the other hand, the adults freaked out so much...at this rate, Lucifer's gonna kick all your butts~!'

'...what do you know of that goatee-bastard, Maria?' Ban asked gruffly.

'Follow me...I'll show you the real Divine Design.' she said with a smile as she led them to a back room full of magic books. She reached for the top of a shelf and took out a book. 'Here it is! I haven't used them in ages so the dust layer is pretty thick.' and she opened the book, showing worn-out cards.

'Wow...they're all beat-up...' Ginji croaked out, picking one up.

'Now these, are authentic Divine Design cards.' Maria told them. 'Only three sets ever existed...I have one, Lucifer has the other and the third set is with your grandmother.' she told Ban as she picked up a card.

'Sooo what's so great about these cards?' Ginji asked her curiously.

'Heehee...good question...'

'He just had to ask that?' frankly, Dino really doesn't want to know.

'Let's see...how about this?' Maria placed her hand on Ginji's chest...and it went inside to their horror, and pulled out his heart! And it's beating in her hand!

'Wha?!' Himiko gasped as the others were stunned, horrified.

'What're you doing, old hag?!' Ban cried frantically, worrying for Ginji's life. 'Ginji!' he howled. 'Put it back!' he knew its a ploy otherwise if she was working for Lucifer, Tsunade would have incinerated the ol' hag if Ginji's threatened but that doesn't make this any less dangerous!

'My heart! My heaaaart!' Ginji wailed, bouncing around in panic. 'W-wait Ban-chan, what happens if you lose your heart?' he cried, going Tare-Ginji as while the Freelancers are in utter deadpan, Dino was like 'WTF?'

"How stupid is he?!"

'You usually die.' said Juubei.

'You die.' said Himiko.

'Nooooo!' Ginji cried, reaching for...an unplugged vacuum cleaner.

'Awww he's so cute!'

'...life would be easy if that'd fix you...and that's unplugged, moron.' Ban griped at him.

'Heehee, OK~' Maria giggled as she put the heart back. 'So boy, how does it feel to have your heart ripped out and put back?'

'V-very heart-racing...' Ginji stammered out.

'You have some talent~' Maria purred.

'Gin-chan, you're fine?' Hevn asked anxiously.

'Y-yeah...'

'Heehee...'

'So that's what Divine Design can do...but how do we save Kazuki with it?' Juubei asked Maria.

'The only way to rescue your friend is to become a better card player of course.' said Maria.

'Explain and quit being so vague!' Ban snapped.

'Oh my, poor ignorant Ban...is the Jagan and Asclepius Spell the only things you inherited from your grandmother?' Maria pouted. 'You can do it if you bothered, you're just stubborn.'

'Isn't he?' Ginji was quick to agree, earning him a retaliatory bop from Ban.

'Shut it!'

'That was a little trick using Divine Design.' said Maria, sitting on a chair. 'Simply put, humans think the world they see is all that exists, but that's not true...if the world we normally see is Reality, then the world of the Divine Design is called Upper Reality. And whatever happens there leaves a mark on Reality. An example of that would be when a spirit chokes you in your sleep and when you wake up you find a semblance of a hand-shaped bruise down your throat~'

'So what I saw was the other world?'

'Yeeees! You have talent!' Maria squealed happily.

'Wait, then that means...' Ban gasped out.

'Once you become a powerful card user known as the Dominator...you're able to access, create and show your version of Upper Reality to other people and pull them in the world you create. And if Multiple Dominators get together, they can then control you like pieces on a board.' came the morbid explanation. 'Meaning, the battles some of you got so far is part of that game. By using your cards, they can control you however they wish.'

'Its a fight of strong wills and imagination in other words...' Dino theorized. 'As long as we have our authentic cards and imagine an Upper Reality where we won't go the way they want us to and instead dominate that world.'

'Bing-bong~! You have talent too.' Maria smiled at him. 'Now follow me won't you? If you want the power of Divine Design, then I'll lend you a hand...though whether or not you master it, is up to you.'

Ban glowered at her as her final words are aimed at him.