Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 16A
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: R-ish, but NC-17 this chapter.
Summary: This story follows Ayumu, a more or less normal child born in 2012, three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here). His parents, Jun and ( Read more... )
“Allo, truffle, I know I said I would take you out, but I judged it wiser to wait until you’re better,” she greeted casually from her perch on the toilet bowl.
Displaying not the least surprise, Nino let out a quiet ‘heh’ and flicked a wrist. “Are you stalking me?”
“Would you like me to?” Lady Strange returned without missing a beat as she extracted a small bottle of dettol from her pocket and poured a capful into the bathwater.
“I’m playing how many games concurrently? I think I can deal with my devil of a therapist stalking me too,” laughed the man in a low, bitter tone, watching the mistress of the Eighth-and-a-half circle of hell mother him. “Yeah, while we’re at it - how many games am I playing concurrently?”
“Three at last count: (a) A mind game against Daisuke because he’s obviously backstabbing you, (b) a Go match against the boss who runs that ghastly Host Club Nozoki who by the way wants to destroy you utterly, and (c) a chess match against the Johnny’s Entertainment jimusho who might now take umbrage that you suspect something between PwC, JE and that odious Host Club,” her ladyship counted on her tapered fingers as she charmed the bath loofah puff into the form of a small duckling and sent it waddling across the bathwater.
“That last thing - the chess game. That’s difficult. I can’t see the moves ahead,” Nino confessed, sliding deeper into the hot water and idly watching the animated loofah puff duckling swim around. “Just what kind of crazy connection exists between JE and that disgusting Host Club place that it needs to hire PwC to orchestrate some form of cover up? What has that got to do with all the lookalikes of JE idols running around in there?”
Settling onto the bath stool and holding out a finger to the animated loofah duckling, Lady Strange writhed her lips into a queer half-smile, “I can’t tell you that. All I can say about that is that you need more on the PwC dimension before you can see four to six moves ahead.”
Nino snorted and rubbed his face before curtly informing his therapist: “What about the Go game with the H.C. Nozoki boss? I’m never going back to that kind of place again. Real life isn’t as torturous as the kinds of fantasies they enact there. How do I play against that boss? I was nearly surrounded and cut off the last time.”
“The nozoki was used to play against you. That failed, and so, you must expect the boss there to make another move. This move that he will shortly make will be a reconnaissance one on his part because he wants to ascertain how much you know and suspect about him.”
“Yeah, what do I know anyway? Only bits and pieces,” sneered Nino self-deprecatorily. “I know I know Oh-chan roped in that Mastuda guy in the plan. I know from that 008 guy that Matsuda Kei is his kohai and was told by the ‘boss’ to moonlight at that Nozoki place. I know that Matsuda has a regular job at PwC, and I know that Matsuda manages the Johnny’s Entertainment account in his role as PwC auditor. Somehow, I know it all links back to Arashi because Oh-chan is an Ohno Satoshi lookalike, 008 and Matsuda are MatsuJun lookalikes. I know that the common factor between PwC and that Nozoki place is Johnny’s Entertainment. I know that the common factor between Oh-chan and Matsuda and 008 is probably someone who wants to screw me big time. I also know that whoever it is who wants to screw me over knows what happened between MatsuJun, Satoshi and me. I know that that’s why whoever behind this wants to use this to screw me over again.”
“You’ve been thinking, very good, my sweet,” replied her ladyship. “And what do all these things you know point to? Who knows exactly what happened between you, Mr Ohno and Mr Matsumoto?”
“Not Sho or Aiba - those two can’t even see the tips of their noses. It can only be…” Nino’s voice trailed off as he narrowed his eyes at the devil currently playing with the loofah puff duckling. “You mean him?”
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Nino nodded and made a face of disgust. “Oh-chan’s one of those peeping demons. It’s worse because the guy’s practically in close proximity with me 24/7.”
“Exactly,” her ladyship concurred, pushing the loofah duckling towards her patient and propped her head up in her palm. “Because you’ve joined the dots so far, the main boss behind this elaborate plan will play a hikari or place a seed in your uncharted territory on the Goban. No matter how tempted you are to find out why he’s doing this to you, you cannot respond for about four moves. You can however exploit this to your advantage. While the boss is waiting to see how you respond to him, you play elsewhere and consolidate your position on other parts of the Goban. You need to acquire allies and you need to play against Daisuke to gather information.”
“Meh, working on Daisuke is like playing up to a really shy kid,” he snorted, “there’s guilt written on his every move. The whole point is to be the black mamba when his defences are down. I’ve already told him indirectly while looking straight at him that it hurts more because his betrayal drove me to brink of sanity. I even threw him a blink-and-miss line that I trusted him - how could he do this to me et cetera et cetera. Acting and pretending are my fortes, my lady. You don’t have to worry there,” Nino reassured her.
“Guilt is a powerful emotion, yes. But how will you play it? I advocate the tit-for-tat strategy in Game Theory. It is based on the following ideas: (i) unless provoked, your opponent will always cooperate, (ii) if provoked, your opponent will retaliate, (iii) you must seem quick to forgive, (iv) so long as you appear quick to forgive, you will have a good chance of competing against the opponent more than once, and (v) so doing creates false security in your opponent,” expounded her ladyship.
“There’s a ‘but’ somewhere if you’re pausing now.” Nino made an impatient gesture.
“In this type of Game Theory strategy, a one-time, single-bit error in either your or Daisuke’s interpretation of events can lead to an unending ‘death spiral’. In this symmetric situation, each side perceives itself as preferring to cooperate, if only the other side would. But each is forced by the strategy into repeatedly punishing an opponent who continues to attack despite being punished in every game cycle. Both sides come to think of themselves as innocent and acting in self-defence, and their opponent as either evil or too stupid to learn to cooperate,” cautioned Lady Strange, patting her patient’s hand in absentminded affection. “You must not allow yourself to come to this point if you want to win against Daisuke.”
“Meh, no worries there, my lady,” he found himself giving her a lopsided half-smile. “I’ll play the black mamba - perfectly fine if you leave me alone but if I’m provoked, I bite and I’m 100% deadly.”
“Non, petit, you’re dead not deadly. There’s a difference,” smiled her ladyship. “However, I am pleased with the black mamba reference. It is by nature a snake that likes to be left alone in its lair, and if it does bite, it is out of necessity. Curiously, it’s the inside of the mouth and the tongue that’s black, further emphasising the toxicity of its venom. Its venom has a mortality rate of 100% if treatment is not given in time. But more ironically, black mamba is the name of a strain of Cannabis.”
“The drug?” Nino asked in curiosity.
“A drug one can so easily become addicted to, much like sex, caffeine and the milk of human kindness,” Lady Strange informed him with a devilish smirk curling her upper lip.
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“Exactly, if that doesn’t compound his guilt, his heart must be colder than a devil’s.”
“And what about the allies thing? I can’t say I like it,” Nino admitted with a faint huff. “He travels fastest who travels alone.”
“Hitler said the same thing when I warned him of the dangers of his excess in 1938, and look what happened to him.”
“I’m not Hitler. I’m not some deluded megalomaniac with an inferiority complex,” he snarled irritably.
“You may think that if it comforts you. However, I am still honour bound to remind you that you tried to wing it alone when you learnt of the whole Host Club Nozoki, Matsuda Kei, Daisuke business. Look what happened to you? You ended up battered and sexually assaulted.” The devil wagged a finger at him and returned the loofah puff to its original form.
“Point taken,” he acknowledged a tad waspishly. “Last time you told me to work on Aiba and Sho first, and do it quietly on the sly. That doesn’t give me much to work on.”
“I know, my truffle, but I can’t help you too much or it would spoil the fun,” she told him, rising from the bath stool and dropping him a maternal peck on top of his head. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Yeah, but how will I play Aiba and Sho? It’s not like they would believe me.” Nino grabbed her wrist.
“That’s entirely your game, sweetness. You play it.” she smiled benignly at him as she placed a chaste kiss on his forehead. “Mamma has to go now. I have another appointment.”
It was just as well she snapped her fingers and dematerialised from the bathroom then, for Nino needed more alone time to weigh his options and consider his next course of action
[NB: More therapy sessions to come, specifically Daisuke's, Ohno's, and maybe Jun's. Then the post mortems...]
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I loved this bit. Good advice for our little *dead* schemer (I loved rereading the line on how Kazu is more 'dead than deadly'...I want to use it in a future chapter! Hmm...what's more frightening? Something deadly or something dead? And JunJun--let's see, now what animal shall we liken our *deadly* Jun-papa to....*(￣_￣ )｡o０○(想像中…)*). More addictions!! More vices!! MWA HA HA HA HA!!! *cackles and cracks her whips* Now, what will Kazu do? He has a lot of information right now and has paid somewhat of a heavy price for the information, but that's what us DoS people like to see from the master bastard.
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How about a komodo dragon for Jun-jun? Toxic saliva, chock-a-bloc with lots of bacteria. No two komodos' saliva components of bacteria are the same. One bite from the komodo, and you'll die eventually when the bacteria kills your immune system and shuts down your organs one by one. It doesn't matter where you die because the komodo dragon will find your corpse in the end. Great thing is, one komodo dragon doesnt touch another komodo's prey. So even if Komodo 1 stumbles on the dead carcass that has komodo 2's saliva on it, Komodo 1 won't touch it. See, a deadly and honourable beast.
Dear Kazu will go on collecting other pieces of information and consolidate his power. I've already taught him to play. Now, we'll just have to see if his kindness becomes successfully addicting to young Daisuke.
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I know you're petting your little truffle for his recent epiphany and decision to play a different game with boy Daisuke. He's a good boy that deserves it...
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Daisuke should grow a few more brain cells but he's getting there. I'm starting to call him 'mon pauvre' instead of 'boy' now; much like how I've taken to calling Jun 'my boy' since his self-reflection jaunt.
Heh, the Komodo dragon was the first thing that popped into mind and it is very apropos. Glad to be of service.
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