Joker's Game - 2nd Prologue
Authors: cherry_chan24, sakura_chan24
Pairings: Akame, JunDa
Summary:“They say there is a place in this world, a place where wishes come true. But be warned: Only the most desperate souls, who lost all hope, enter JOKER’S PALACE. For those who get caught in Joker’s net won’t get free again and every wish comes with a price.”
Kazuya and Jin see themselves confronted with several mysterious criminal cases where a red Joker card is found. In their attempt to catch the culprit, they soon must learn that their opponent is much more powerful than they think and that they are all part of a game they just barely understand.
Then Kazuya enters JOKER’S PALACE and now Jin has to do all he can to save his friend.
Previous Chapter
Second Prologue: The Game Starts
Six years ago…
It was raining. The heavy raindrops soaked the streets and houses, dripped from the roofs and ran down the gutters. The bad weather forced the people to hurry. They hastened across the streets and pavements in the attempt to reach dry ground as fast as possible. The outskirts were almost deserted around this time of the day and so no one noticed the tall figure hurrying through the dark alleys without looking left or right. The young man had the collar of his anorak up against the cold and a hood covered his head so that his face remained in the shadows underneath it. Only his mouth was visible, showing a determined expression. With his hands deep in his pockets, he rushed past the residential buildings and shops which showed different stages of dilapidation each. He didn’t come to a nice neighborhood.
When the street reached a dead end, the man stopped and looked around. The small alley appeared as if it hasn’t seen anyone for a long time. The houses were abandoned. Most of the windows were nailed and rusty iron bars blocked the entrance of a former bookshop. They didn’t look like they would stop any burglar anymore. But who would come here to steal something anyway?
The only light in the street came from a flashing neon sign showing a squiggly writing and an arrow pointing to a door at the end of a rickety staircase. The red writing flared up from time to time before it sank into darkness again. When the man read the name on the plate, his heart made a leap and he remembered the words which the stranger in white had told him. “They say there is a place in this world, a place where wishes come true. But be warned: Only the most desperate souls, who lost all hope, enter JOKER’S PALACE. For those who get caught in Joker’s net won’t get free again and every wish comes with a price,” saying that, his unknown helper had handed him a playing card: a joker with an address written on its white back - the address which brought him here today.
Hesitantly he went down the shaky stairs until he stood in front of the inconspicuous door at its end. The door was made out of iron and didn’t have a handle, but when he touched it, it slit open with a quiet squeak. It revealed a narrow corridor with dark-brown tiles and red brocade on the walls that lay in dim half-light. There was another door at its end. The man swallowed and looked upstairs indecisively, before he pulled himself together and entered the corridor. As soon as he made a few steps inside, the door closed behind him. The loud click with which it fell shut had something definite about it. Startled, the man jumped around but the corridor behind him was still empty. With his heart beating fast, he got closer to the second door. This one was made out of wood and in contrast to the first one it had a door handle. Carefully the man pushed it open and entered the room behind it. The wooden planks creaked quietly under his feet. Vigilantly he paused at the door and looked around.
He was standing at the head end of a five-step staircase which led down into a five-cornered room. The walls were covered with black brocade that seemed to absorb the light from the only candelabra on the ceiling in the middle of the room. A wooden chair with a high back and curved armrests was placed underneath the candelabra. It was decorated with ornate woodcarvings. The way it looked reminded the man more of a throne than a normal chair. Except from that, the room was empty. The man was alone. With a fluid motion he pushed back his hood. A slim face, short black hair and the exhausted eyes of a man who had gone through a lot came to light.
As he moved slowly down the stairs and got closer to the chair he noticed that the wood-carvings on it portrayed grotesque faces and the mocking faces of fools. The man swallowed uneasily. The bad feeling that had overcome him at the entrance door was back. By now he was certain that it hadn’t been such a good idea to come here. Yet he knew that he couldn’t turn back now. He couldn’t be frightened by a few spine-chilling effects. If he was to give up now…
“I’m here to meet the Joker!” His words echoed through the empty room and were absorbed by the velvet walls. Nothing happened. With shaking hands, he pulled the joker card out of his pocket and glanced once again at the address on the back although there was no doubt that he had come to the right place. He didn’t know what to make of this situation or this strange room and its scary atmosphere. The only thing he did know was that his plan had to be successful. It had to be! But what if it was too late already? What if…? No, he couldn’t bear thinking about it. His hands clung on to the joker card. “Every wish… Every wish can be granted…,” he repeated the words of the stranger from the hospital quietly to himself, “Every wish can be granted.” He looked around the room anxiously but he was still alone. No one had come. “Please! It’s urgent!”
“It’s always urgent, isn’t it?”
Startled the man turned around. With a shocked cry he shrunk back from the chair on which another man had appeared suddenly. He didn’t seem to be older than the man himself, slim, with short blonde hair. He wore a black leather jacket which was trimmed with rivets over a black jeans and T-shirt and black boots. With his right leg casually hanging over the armrest and his left elbow placed on the other, the chin resting in his hand, he appeared as he was sitting there for quite a while already. Where did he come from?
“How…?” the man retreated another step in surprise before starting again, “Are you… the Joker?”
The stranger laughed mockingly. “This is JOKER’S PALACE. Did you expect someone else?” But then his face turned serious and he leaned forward to have a close look at the man. “I don’t think we know each other, do we?”
Uncertain, the man shook his head.
“Who are you? I don’t recall giving you an invitation and no invitation… no deal. You shouldn’t have been able to get in here without the card.”
Card? “I-I have a card.” The man held up the joker card…
… and recoiled with a shocked gasp when suddenly the Joker stood right in front of him.
The Joker considered the card in his hand attentively from all angles. “Where did you get it?” He looked at the man suspiciously.
“I…,” confused the man blinked at his empty hands which had held the joker card up until a few seconds ago, “A man gave it to me… at the hospital. He said you could help me.”
“A man?” The Joker raised an eyebrow skeptically. „Can you describe him?”
“Describe him? I… no, I… he had…“ The man shook his head. “I-I don’t really remember. I think he wore white clothes…,” his voice trailed off.
The Joker sighed in resignation and threw back the card to the man who caught it with great presence of mind. “All right then. What do you want?”
“I-I have a request… a-a wish.”
“Really?” The Joker snorted. “Who would have thought that?” He wanted to turn away, but paused and frowned. “I wonder…” He picked a set of playing cards from his pocket, fanned them out with one hand and picked a card with the other. The result seemed to surprise him because he whistled through his teeth in acknowledgement. Holding the card in his extended hand in front of him, he closed one eye and glanced back and force between the card in his hand and his visitor. Slowly, a grin spread on his face. “A jack of hearts... Well, that’s rare.” He laughed quietly and shook his head. “What have you been thinking?”
“What? I…” don’t understand what you‘re talking about, the man wanted to say but the Joker had already put the cards away and watched him now with new interest. “So you have a wish?”
“Ah… hai.” Silence.
The Joker rolled his eyes. “And that would be…?”
Nervously the man ran his tongue over his lips. “It’s about my friend. He had an accident. It… it was my fault, I… He… The doctors say that there’s nothing more they can do. They say I shouldn’t hold my hopes up but… Please, the man who gave me this card said that you can grant every wish. You must save him!”
“A dying friend? That’s all?“ The Joker stared at him in disbelieve. The interest in his eyes vanished as fast as it had lightened up. “Haa-haa, boring .” He turned away disappointed and rubbed his face. “And I thought you would have an interesting wish, especially because you’re a jack.” He stood behind his throne now and supported his hands and chin on the back rest. “You don’t happen to know which card your friend is, do you?” he asked hopefully.
“Which card? I…”
“Maa ikka.” With a resigned sigh the Joker went round his chair and sat down again.
The man watched him insecurely. “Does that mean you won’t help me?” He couldn’t believe it. The Joker had been his last chance! If he didn’t want to help… If he… The man felt tears in his eyes but he forced himself not to cry. It wouldn’t help him now.
“Like I have a choice. Those are the rules.” The Joker sounded resigned.
“What rules?”
“The rules of the Game. Seriously, how did you get here without knowing anything appar-ently?”
“I…I…”
“Hai, hai, you got this card from a strange man. Remind me to strangle him the next time I see him.”
The man understood less and little. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, you’re my only hope. H-he’ll die if you don’t do something… even though I promised him…“, he couldn’t suppress a sob anymore, “I promised that we would always be together and now… it’s my fault, if I…,” he buried his face in his hands and sank on his knees when the pictures that he had tried to push back until now overwhelmed him. Once again he felt how his friend had freed himself from his grip, watched once again, how his friend ran out of the house, on the street and then... “I promised him that we would always be together and then I destroyed everything.” The voice of the man was nothing more than a whisper.
“ Sou ka.” The bored expression on the Joker’s face disappeared at one blow. “You don’t want me to just fulfill your wish. You want to win the Game.”
“Hah?” The man looked up, uncertain. “I…I don’t want to win anything. I just want…”
“…to be together with your friend forever, I understood as much as that.” The Joker waved his hand impatiently. “That’s the same - with a bit of goodwill.”
“Th-then you’ll help me?” The man felt hope rising inside of him again.
The Joker shrugged. “I’m the Joker. I can settle the Game for your benefit, but my help is not…”
“…for free.” The last words were just a whisper near the man’s ear. Startled the man flinched backwards and fell back on all fours as the Joker suddenly stood behind him. Just how did he do that? “W-what are you asking for?”
“Well…,” the Joker unbent, “What are you willing to pay?”
“Everything… whatever you want.”
A malicious smile appeared on the Joker’s face. His eyes sparkled in a devious manner. He crossed the distance between them with one step and squatted down in front of the man. Again he picked a card from his pocket and held it up in front of the man’s face. It was a Joker. When the Joker turned the card in his hands, the man saw that its backside was black. “It shall be.” The sinister whisper faded away in the empty room. The Joker had van-ished. The man was alone again. The black joker card fell on the ground where it laid with the front up. The picture of the Joker seemed to laugh at the man. Still in a daze he bent down and picked up the card. Quietly, he repeated the words that suddenly came to his mind: “White is the offer. Black is the contract…”
Next Chapter...
A/N: So that's it for the beginning. I hope you liked it so far and that you'll continue reading. The first chapter is nearly finished, so look forward to it. It should be up soon.
It's our first bigger project together, so please go easy on us :)
As always comments are appreciated. :)
Like I mentioned above, we started this project some time ago but because of various reasons publishing was put on hold. Among other things there were some inconsitencies in the story line that we had some problems with, but they are all cleared now and we're ready to continue writing now.
And just one more things for German readers: We started to write this story in German first because we wrote it for a friend of ours in the first place, and we'll probably continue with that, so if anyone prefers to read this story in German I can put a German version up as well. Just comment below and let me know. :)
Pairings: Akame, JunDa
Summary:“They say there is a place in this world, a place where wishes come true. But be warned: Only the most desperate souls, who lost all hope, enter JOKER’S PALACE. For those who get caught in Joker’s net won’t get free again and every wish comes with a price.”
Kazuya and Jin see themselves confronted with several mysterious criminal cases where a red Joker card is found. In their attempt to catch the culprit, they soon must learn that their opponent is much more powerful than they think and that they are all part of a game they just barely understand.
Then Kazuya enters JOKER’S PALACE and now Jin has to do all he can to save his friend.
Previous Chapter
Second Prologue: The Game Starts
Six years ago…
It was raining. The heavy raindrops soaked the streets and houses, dripped from the roofs and ran down the gutters. The bad weather forced the people to hurry. They hastened across the streets and pavements in the attempt to reach dry ground as fast as possible. The outskirts were almost deserted around this time of the day and so no one noticed the tall figure hurrying through the dark alleys without looking left or right. The young man had the collar of his anorak up against the cold and a hood covered his head so that his face remained in the shadows underneath it. Only his mouth was visible, showing a determined expression. With his hands deep in his pockets, he rushed past the residential buildings and shops which showed different stages of dilapidation each. He didn’t come to a nice neighborhood.
When the street reached a dead end, the man stopped and looked around. The small alley appeared as if it hasn’t seen anyone for a long time. The houses were abandoned. Most of the windows were nailed and rusty iron bars blocked the entrance of a former bookshop. They didn’t look like they would stop any burglar anymore. But who would come here to steal something anyway?
The only light in the street came from a flashing neon sign showing a squiggly writing and an arrow pointing to a door at the end of a rickety staircase. The red writing flared up from time to time before it sank into darkness again. When the man read the name on the plate, his heart made a leap and he remembered the words which the stranger in white had told him. “They say there is a place in this world, a place where wishes come true. But be warned: Only the most desperate souls, who lost all hope, enter JOKER’S PALACE. For those who get caught in Joker’s net won’t get free again and every wish comes with a price,” saying that, his unknown helper had handed him a playing card: a joker with an address written on its white back - the address which brought him here today.
Hesitantly he went down the shaky stairs until he stood in front of the inconspicuous door at its end. The door was made out of iron and didn’t have a handle, but when he touched it, it slit open with a quiet squeak. It revealed a narrow corridor with dark-brown tiles and red brocade on the walls that lay in dim half-light. There was another door at its end. The man swallowed and looked upstairs indecisively, before he pulled himself together and entered the corridor. As soon as he made a few steps inside, the door closed behind him. The loud click with which it fell shut had something definite about it. Startled, the man jumped around but the corridor behind him was still empty. With his heart beating fast, he got closer to the second door. This one was made out of wood and in contrast to the first one it had a door handle. Carefully the man pushed it open and entered the room behind it. The wooden planks creaked quietly under his feet. Vigilantly he paused at the door and looked around.
He was standing at the head end of a five-step staircase which led down into a five-cornered room. The walls were covered with black brocade that seemed to absorb the light from the only candelabra on the ceiling in the middle of the room. A wooden chair with a high back and curved armrests was placed underneath the candelabra. It was decorated with ornate woodcarvings. The way it looked reminded the man more of a throne than a normal chair. Except from that, the room was empty. The man was alone. With a fluid motion he pushed back his hood. A slim face, short black hair and the exhausted eyes of a man who had gone through a lot came to light.
As he moved slowly down the stairs and got closer to the chair he noticed that the wood-carvings on it portrayed grotesque faces and the mocking faces of fools. The man swallowed uneasily. The bad feeling that had overcome him at the entrance door was back. By now he was certain that it hadn’t been such a good idea to come here. Yet he knew that he couldn’t turn back now. He couldn’t be frightened by a few spine-chilling effects. If he was to give up now…
“I’m here to meet the Joker!” His words echoed through the empty room and were absorbed by the velvet walls. Nothing happened. With shaking hands, he pulled the joker card out of his pocket and glanced once again at the address on the back although there was no doubt that he had come to the right place. He didn’t know what to make of this situation or this strange room and its scary atmosphere. The only thing he did know was that his plan had to be successful. It had to be! But what if it was too late already? What if…? No, he couldn’t bear thinking about it. His hands clung on to the joker card. “Every wish… Every wish can be granted…,” he repeated the words of the stranger from the hospital quietly to himself, “Every wish can be granted.” He looked around the room anxiously but he was still alone. No one had come. “Please! It’s urgent!”
“It’s always urgent, isn’t it?”
Startled the man turned around. With a shocked cry he shrunk back from the chair on which another man had appeared suddenly. He didn’t seem to be older than the man himself, slim, with short blonde hair. He wore a black leather jacket which was trimmed with rivets over a black jeans and T-shirt and black boots. With his right leg casually hanging over the armrest and his left elbow placed on the other, the chin resting in his hand, he appeared as he was sitting there for quite a while already. Where did he come from?
“How…?” the man retreated another step in surprise before starting again, “Are you… the Joker?”
The stranger laughed mockingly. “This is JOKER’S PALACE. Did you expect someone else?” But then his face turned serious and he leaned forward to have a close look at the man. “I don’t think we know each other, do we?”
Uncertain, the man shook his head.
“Who are you? I don’t recall giving you an invitation and no invitation… no deal. You shouldn’t have been able to get in here without the card.”
Card? “I-I have a card.” The man held up the joker card…
… and recoiled with a shocked gasp when suddenly the Joker stood right in front of him.
The Joker considered the card in his hand attentively from all angles. “Where did you get it?” He looked at the man suspiciously.
“I…,” confused the man blinked at his empty hands which had held the joker card up until a few seconds ago, “A man gave it to me… at the hospital. He said you could help me.”
“A man?” The Joker raised an eyebrow skeptically. „Can you describe him?”
“Describe him? I… no, I… he had…“ The man shook his head. “I-I don’t really remember. I think he wore white clothes…,” his voice trailed off.
The Joker sighed in resignation and threw back the card to the man who caught it with great presence of mind. “All right then. What do you want?”
“I-I have a request… a-a wish.”
“Really?” The Joker snorted. “Who would have thought that?” He wanted to turn away, but paused and frowned. “I wonder…” He picked a set of playing cards from his pocket, fanned them out with one hand and picked a card with the other. The result seemed to surprise him because he whistled through his teeth in acknowledgement. Holding the card in his extended hand in front of him, he closed one eye and glanced back and force between the card in his hand and his visitor. Slowly, a grin spread on his face. “A jack of hearts... Well, that’s rare.” He laughed quietly and shook his head. “What have you been thinking?”
“What? I…” don’t understand what you‘re talking about, the man wanted to say but the Joker had already put the cards away and watched him now with new interest. “So you have a wish?”
“Ah… hai.” Silence.
The Joker rolled his eyes. “And that would be…?”
Nervously the man ran his tongue over his lips. “It’s about my friend. He had an accident. It… it was my fault, I… He… The doctors say that there’s nothing more they can do. They say I shouldn’t hold my hopes up but… Please, the man who gave me this card said that you can grant every wish. You must save him!”
“A dying friend? That’s all?“ The Joker stared at him in disbelieve. The interest in his eyes vanished as fast as it had lightened up. “Haa-haa, boring .” He turned away disappointed and rubbed his face. “And I thought you would have an interesting wish, especially because you’re a jack.” He stood behind his throne now and supported his hands and chin on the back rest. “You don’t happen to know which card your friend is, do you?” he asked hopefully.
“Which card? I…”
“Maa ikka.” With a resigned sigh the Joker went round his chair and sat down again.
The man watched him insecurely. “Does that mean you won’t help me?” He couldn’t believe it. The Joker had been his last chance! If he didn’t want to help… If he… The man felt tears in his eyes but he forced himself not to cry. It wouldn’t help him now.
“Like I have a choice. Those are the rules.” The Joker sounded resigned.
“What rules?”
“The rules of the Game. Seriously, how did you get here without knowing anything appar-ently?”
“I…I…”
“Hai, hai, you got this card from a strange man. Remind me to strangle him the next time I see him.”
The man understood less and little. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, you’re my only hope. H-he’ll die if you don’t do something… even though I promised him…“, he couldn’t suppress a sob anymore, “I promised that we would always be together and now… it’s my fault, if I…,” he buried his face in his hands and sank on his knees when the pictures that he had tried to push back until now overwhelmed him. Once again he felt how his friend had freed himself from his grip, watched once again, how his friend ran out of the house, on the street and then... “I promised him that we would always be together and then I destroyed everything.” The voice of the man was nothing more than a whisper.
“ Sou ka.” The bored expression on the Joker’s face disappeared at one blow. “You don’t want me to just fulfill your wish. You want to win the Game.”
“Hah?” The man looked up, uncertain. “I…I don’t want to win anything. I just want…”
“…to be together with your friend forever, I understood as much as that.” The Joker waved his hand impatiently. “That’s the same - with a bit of goodwill.”
“Th-then you’ll help me?” The man felt hope rising inside of him again.
The Joker shrugged. “I’m the Joker. I can settle the Game for your benefit, but my help is not…”
“…for free.” The last words were just a whisper near the man’s ear. Startled the man flinched backwards and fell back on all fours as the Joker suddenly stood behind him. Just how did he do that? “W-what are you asking for?”
“Well…,” the Joker unbent, “What are you willing to pay?”
“Everything… whatever you want.”
A malicious smile appeared on the Joker’s face. His eyes sparkled in a devious manner. He crossed the distance between them with one step and squatted down in front of the man. Again he picked a card from his pocket and held it up in front of the man’s face. It was a Joker. When the Joker turned the card in his hands, the man saw that its backside was black. “It shall be.” The sinister whisper faded away in the empty room. The Joker had van-ished. The man was alone again. The black joker card fell on the ground where it laid with the front up. The picture of the Joker seemed to laugh at the man. Still in a daze he bent down and picked up the card. Quietly, he repeated the words that suddenly came to his mind: “White is the offer. Black is the contract…”
Next Chapter...
A/N: So that's it for the beginning. I hope you liked it so far and that you'll continue reading. The first chapter is nearly finished, so look forward to it. It should be up soon.
It's our first bigger project together, so please go easy on us :)
As always comments are appreciated. :)
Like I mentioned above, we started this project some time ago but because of various reasons publishing was put on hold. Among other things there were some inconsitencies in the story line that we had some problems with, but they are all cleared now and we're ready to continue writing now.
And just one more things for German readers: We started to write this story in German first because we wrote it for a friend of ours in the first place, and we'll probably continue with that, so if anyone prefers to read this story in German I can put a German version up as well. Just comment below and let me know. :)