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... )
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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