Title : Night of the Hunter
Chapter : 02/??
Author :
kei_kyuuketsukiFandom : the GazettE, Kanon Wakeshima, Rose Noire (more to come)
Pairings : UruhaXAoi, KouyouXAoi, TakashimaXAoi (confused? *chuckled*)
Theme Song : all 30 Seconds to Mars songs from their “This is War” album
Rating : R
Genre : AU, fantasy, action, romance
Warning : there are TWO URUHAs here, complex situation, ambiguities, figurative words, bad English
Disclaimer : I don’t own the boys. They belong to themselves. The bands belong to their company. I adapted the main idea of the story from CLAMPS’s CARD CAPTOR SAKURA. I only fitted the main idea of the story with new settings and - of course - new characters. That’s all.
Summary : those powers have ‘minds’. ‘They’ can think. They rebelled. They wanted to be free, yet they need humans to be their host. Not all the people were able to bear such a power. Several of those people turned mad and became a menace to the world. That is what Aoi had to deal with. As some kind of guardian, Kouyou and Takashima are there to help Aoi whenever the boy needs them… or was it the contrary?
Comment : nothing in particular. Well, happy reading! ;D
Chapter 00;
Chapter 01 02. The Omen
Where were we? Oh, yes. In my café. No, I mean, in the café where I work. I guess this place was becoming some kind of our ‘headquarter’ or something. We usually met here. We’ve been meeting up like this for several days already.
Actually, they intended to come to my apartment for chatting, for having lunch, or anything. But I’ve told you already, right? My apartment became so small just by Takashima and Kouyou’s arrival. I just can’t imagine it if I let Kanon and Reita barged into my apartment too.
It was several noisy and calm days at the same time. It’s noisy because I just still can’t get used to so many people like this. Yeah, weird, huh? I prefer to be alone most of the time than to deal with the crowd. That was my reason too why I worked here. This café is so calm. And it was also calm because I didn’t have to deal with those Arcana Powers for awhile.
Kouyou and Takashima, they usually came two hours before my shift was ended. Kanon Wakeshima - the girl who possessed by The High Priestess power - can read that habit so easily. She visited this café right after her entire activity in her school ended, and met up with the other two men. As addition, Reita just came here randomly. Here, they usually spend the time by sipping this café’s famous tea, and playing chess. Well, actually, it’s just Kanon and Takashima who usually played the chess.
Now I know that The High Priestess didn’t posses her for nothing. This girl is truly smart.
“Check mate!” she yelled happily as she beat Takashima in chess; for the umpteenth time.
Then I remembered when she told me about the queen pawn that I found in the second year class at her school few days ago. Remember that transparent white queen pawn? The one with many red stones attached around it?
Now I see the complete package of the chess. The pawns are all transparent, the white and the black, they are all like a glass, like a crystal, like jewelry. The chess was a memento from her father. She already lost her father when she was eight.
This girl is in her third year. Then why was the queen pawn in the second year’s class?
“Someone stole it from me…” she said as she collected all the pawns on the chessboard, while in front of her, Takashima in crying shamelessly for his loss. “I think… I’ve been… bullied or something like that…” she explained with a shrugged.
“Bullied?” Reita asked. Reita was sitting beside Takashima. “A girl like you?” Reita asked in disbelieve. “You’re smart. Cute. And I think you’re sweet too. Why would someone bully you?”
“I don’t know…” Again, Kanon shrugged. “And I don’t really care about it. The only thing that catches my attention was this…” She showed me the said white queen pawn. “He can do anything to me but not steeling anything from my chess things since it’s a memento…”
I nodded. “He… I mean the one who bullied you… why did he do that to you? Did he ever tell you about any particular reason?”
“Now that you asked about it… I guess it’s because he was jealous… or envy, I don’t know…”
“How can you think like that?” Reita asked.
“I beat him at the chess tournament.”
“Reasonable,” I said.
“Maybe he just doesn’t want to accept the result,” Kanon said. “That’s why he took something very important for me to make me hard to concentrate to anything…” She paused before she said, “And I have to admit… it worked…” She sighed. “To tell you the truth…” Kanon said. “I was kind of… glad that I found the pawn… even I had to get through of being possessed or anything…”
“That’s why The High Priestess chose to possessed her. Because the power knew that she would be really grateful for it. And that was when The High Priestess sensed her unfocused mind,” Kouyou suddenly said. “The one that in that kind of state could easily be possessed, I presume. And her desire to find that pawn’s back synchronized with The High Priestess power…”
“I see…” I said slowly. “So, it’s all about synchronization from the Arcana’s power with the one who possessed by it, right?”
“Yes,” Kouyou answered.
“I think we can predict the people who possessed the next Arcana’s power if we know the characteristic from each of it…” I said.
“There are twenty more powers, Darling.” Finally, Takashima can join us. “So we still have to wait for you to sense what power will appear next…”
I looked downward and sighed. I thought that I could make this mission easier. But I guess that’s just won’t happen at this moment.
“Hey, the cards you already got…” Kanon said. “What numbers were there?”
“The Magician is one… and The High Priestess is two…” I answered.
Kanon looked at Takashima and Kouyou. “Do you guys remember what the third card is?”
“It can appear randomly,” Kouyou said.
“It’s The Empress…” Takashima said slowly. “And I hope she’s not the one that we have to face soon…”
“The High Priestess is the girl with pride and knowledge…” I said. “What is this The Empress all about?”
“She held the power over life,” Kouyou explained. “She had the dominance through the whole year… she had this dominion over growing things…”
“Growing things?” Reita asked.
“Plants… animals… nature… humans…” Takashima said.
Kanon gasped. “That’s almost everything…”
“And The Empress is associated to several other Arcana’s Power. If she appears soon, her appearance would probably summons the other power to appear also…” Kouyou said.
“If that happened…” Reita said with a thought showed clearly on his face.
“It will be hard for you to face it, Darling…” Takashima said as he patted my shoulder.
“OK, now you kind of remind me of something…” I said. “Both of you-” I pointed at Takashima and Kouyou. “-detected that all the Arcana Power are in this country, right? You can detect them. But how come you can’t sense the people who might get possessed by them?”
“Because the Arcana Power can move randomly by their own…” Kouyou said.
There’s one thing that I want to ask them. But I already forgot about it. Well, I’ll ask them if I remember what it is next time. There, I looked out through this café’s window. The sun is almost set. I don’t know why, but after we had this kind of conversation, my heart just won’t stop beating fast. It’s just won’t turn to its normal speed. I had a bad feeling about tonight. I don’t know why.
Actually, it’s pretty dilemmatic. I want this whole mess to be over. But to put it to an end, I have to face all the Arcana Powers. Is there any way to stop it without facing all the trouble?
Moreover…
I looked at Takashima and Kouyou.
I sighed.
And I guess, in the end, I know why my heart won’t stop beating fast. It was a bad feeling after all.
That night, an hour before midnight, I was ready to fall asleep on my bed, in front of the TV, in my small apartment. The ‘sign’ came just like a nightmare. I heard the chiming sound again. The echoing bell. Again, just like coming from the other world, it feels weird and so unreal. I tried to ignore it. I closed my eyes and pulled my blanket to cover to my face. But I guess what I did that moment was a wrong after all. I. Really. Had. To. Face. It.
It’s visible. Another number appear in the black air when I closed my eyes. The number glows in yellow color this time. It’s a Romanian number… number three…
The Empress…
I pushed my blanket away, and again, my heart was beating like crazy. “No way…” I said slowly. Why her? Why now?
I immediately got out of my bed and change my clothes into a proper one. After that, I got out from my apartment, locked the door, and ran to the direction of the place where I sense The Empress’ position. It won’t take that long until Kouyou and Takashima followed me. Kouyou extend his hand and I caught it. We flew, and Takashima followed behind us.
This time, the spot is: a hospital front yard.
I saw this girl. She has a long black hair. Her hair is almost as long as Kanon’s hair. If Kanon has short bangs that coverings her forehead, this girl’s bangs is long and framing her face perfectly. For me, watching this girl is kind of reminds me of Kanon. She’s beautiful. But this girls’ aura is more to the dark one.
More…
Negative…
“Five centuries are not a short time, Young Man…” said the girl with her sad face. She didn’t look at me. She just stood there right at the center of the hospital’s front yard.
“You found her, Aoi-san… she’s The Empress… The Empress is the Arcana Power that use the spirit from the long gone empress… the spirit came from about five centuries ago…” Kouyou told me.
“What..!?” I was shock. “Can Arcana Power be more sensible already!?”
“Cannot,” answer the girl. “You should ask that question to the one who create us.” The girl then looked up to the sky. It looks like she’s wondering or imagining about something.
Or someone?
“Before that-” Takashima said. “-you’d better get back to where you belong, Adelaide…”
“Adelaide?”
“The spirit’s name… just like The High Priestess’ name is Joan,” Kouyou explained.
“You guys really have to explain those kinds of things to me… later…” I said.
“Bring my child back to me…” said the girl. Since Adelaide is the spirit’s name, I bet that the name wasn’t her real name.
“What?” Kouyou asked.
“Why do you still ask?” She looked at Kouyou as she stretched out her hand.
There, I was shock when a vine came out of nowhere from the ground and moving toward us in a scary speed. I just didn’t have the time when the vine was wrapping my leg and pulled me until I fell.
“Nooo!!” I yelled.
Takashima held the grip of his cane and he pulled it. If only I’m not in my current condition, I would definitely more surprise with what Takashima concealed inside his cane.
A sword.
Takashima jumped to between me and the girl. He swung his sword and cut the vine that wrapped my leg. Suddenly, someone pulled me farther from the girl. It was Kouyou.
The girl was tsk-ing. “You’re so lucky, Young Man… to have such a comrade like this…”
Kouyou helped me to stand. In front of me, Takashima drew his sword to the girls’ face. “I thought your child was always with you…” Takashima asked.
“I lost my child…” The girl showed her hand. It turned white, it turned cold, and it turned hard. Her hand turned into an ice. And a moment later, I saw some snowflakes fell from the sky.
It’s in the middle of spring, for whatever’s sake!
“Your child…you mean… The Hanged Man..?” Kouyou said with a whisper.
“The twelfth card…” Takashima continued.
“Bring my child back to me and I will stop this cold grief from your town…” said the girl.
“You’re child is nowhere to be found, Adelaide… yet…” said Takashima.
“Then find my child…”
“I will definitely find him if he shown himself!” I yelled.
The girl then looked at me. She had a sad eyes yet fierce. It gave me the chill to my bone. “You’re the hunter, right?”
“W-what..?” I didn’t really get with what she’s saying.
“The Hunter… the one that will gather all the power… you should be the one who look for us all… not just wait there until all of us shown ourselves… since you are The-”
“Stop your blabbering!” Kouyou yelled suddenly. He surprised me with his loud voice. That’s very rare for Kouyou to be this loud. He; the calm type of Kouyou. “You can bury this whole town into a snow world if you won’t stop it!”
“Oh, you really understand my power very much, Uruha…” said the girl. That name again. “Then waste no time. Find my child!” she screamed. The snowflakes that fell then gathered in one spot weirdly. It formed into something I’ve never imagined before. It formed into a knight with full armor, with his sword at his right hand, riding a horse.
“The Knight of Swords…” Kouyou said. “It’s one of the Minor Arcana Power that The Empress controlled."
This was getting more and more confusing. “Now what is Minor Arcana!?” I asked in depression.
“The minor type of the power that the Arcana held. Kouyou had told you before, right, Darling? The Empress can summons the other power to help her. This is one of them.”
“Then what we have to do to face this… this… knight?”
“Uruha will face him, Young Man,” said the girl as she smiled. She smiled her creepy smile.
“What..?” When I tried to understand her words, the Knight of Swords’ horse neighed right before it ran and took its rider toward Takashima.
“Takashima look out!” I yelled.
“And you-” The girl pointed her other hand to me and another vines came out from the ground and squeezed my whole body.
“Aoi-san!?” Kouyou yelled. “What..!?”
“Kouyou!!” I tried to reach him but I couldn’t. The vine pulled me away from him. When I looked at Kouyou, I saw a lot of blood emerged from the ground and it’s caught Kouyou’s legs, binding him to the earth.
“This world, soil, earth, is living for me…” said the girl. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me doing all of this things before you bring my child back to me. Tell me where my child is and I’ll bring back the spring to your world, Young Man!!”
As the vines keep pulling me away from Kouyou, as Kouyou was still struggling to freed himself from the living blood, as Takashima started to fight the Knight of the Swords - it’s a very unfair fight if I may add - the snow still fall. It’s getting thicker, thicker, and thicker.
Now what should I do in this kind of condition? I really don’t know about her child. The Empress…
What should I do?
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A/N: THERE! I’ll wrap it like this. So, how do you think about this chapter? It’s still confusing, I guess?
Again, your critics and comments are SO MUCH LUV! ~♥ thank you very much! :-*