Arcana
Started by Scott Schimmel
Chapter Two:    48 Card Pick-Up
Kimberli McClanahan

    

 Hotaru stared up at her darkened ceiling, unable to sleep.  It had been an 
eventful day and she was exhausted, but every time she closed her eyes she could 
see the glint of sunlight on steel as Joker advanced slowly upon her, hear the 
whistle of the blade in the eerie silence.  Grumpily she turned over and punched 
her pillow, trying to relax.

     No dice.  Disgruntled, she considered the events of the evening.  Miyuki, 
or Fortune or whatever, had taken her to the Tower Reversed, a strange 
subterranean fortress she'd been told was actually upside-down and underground.  
The underground she could believe...there had been plenty of stained glass 
windows, but no light coming through them.  As for the upside-down, magical 
gravity stronghold of the distant past, Shirosawa-sempai and Yasuragi-sempai 
seemed to believe it, but she was still in disbelief mode.

     "Take one."  Blind Fortune had told her, handing over a deck of strangely 
heavy cards.

     "Tarot cards?"  Hotaru had asked nervously.

     "They aren't normal.  The card you choose will reveal your identity.  
Shuffle them until you feel it's right, spread them on the table face-down and 
pick one, even throw them all up in the air and catch one -- however you feel 
comfortable doing it."

     With a mental shrug Hotaru had clumsily shuffled the deck.  Gritting her 
teeth she had felt a faint tingle in her fingertips and turned over the top card 
to reveal the Magician.

     A thick and oppressive silence settled over the room.  Hotaru glanced 
around.  All three of the Arcana were wearing expressions of shock and dismay.  
"What?"  she asked.  "What's wrong?"

     "The Magician....."  Sumire trailed off.  "That's a masculine card."

     "That's like the most masculine card in the whole deck!"  Keisuke added.  
"That's like the ultimate male power card."  

     The two studied Hotaru, in her little blue and yellow sailor fuku, with the 
knee socks and cute little ducky barrettes clipped into her glossy brown curls.  
They exchanged an incredulous glance.  "No way."

     "That's odd,"  Miyuki muttered, turning her blind eyes to the deck.  "Draw 
another one, Hotaru."

     Hotaru shrugged and flipped over the next card.  And found herself looking 
into the solemn countenance of the Magician.  "Huh?"  she exclaimed and turned 
over the next three cards in rapid succession.  Five Magician cards stared back 
at her from the table.  She ignored the thump as Keisuke and Sumire sat down 
abruptly.  "What kind of trick is this?  It's stacked!"  

     "No, it's magic."  Miyuki corrected her.  "Watch."  And she took the deck 
herself, shuffling neatly and turning over the Wheel of Fortune Card.  "So 
you're the Magician.  That's....unusual."  Turning, she placed the deck in a 
small silver case in the center of the table and took her seat.

     Hotaru shifted uneasily and glanced between the three of them.  They stared 
back at her expectantly.

     "What?"

     "Sit down."  Miyuki sat patiently, face forward.  "We're going to start the 
meeting."  She lowered her voice, and Hotaru was *sure* she wasn't supposed to 
hear her muttering.  "Not like he's ALWAYS late anyway or anything.... when he 
can fit us into his schedule."  She  grimaced, and for a moment looked like a 
normal 12 year old.  Only for a moment though, for her face settled immediately 
back into ageless marble, her sightless eyes fixed on the distance.

     Hotaru gingerly sat in the nearest chair, and immediately hopped back up.  
It hadn't *hurt* exactly,  but it felt like the seat had rejected her!    She 
took a second look around the table and saw that while seemingly plain, each 
chair was distinctly and subtly unique.  She blinked as she counted almost two 
dozen chairs arranged around the U-shaped table.  Somehow the room just didn't 
seem that big.

     "Hotaru-chan, I think your chair is over here,"  Keisuke called, and waved 
to a grandly carved chair near his end of the table, almost a throne really, at 
the head of one side of the U.

     Since when does he call me -chan?  Hotaru thought as she wandered over.  
Luckily this chair didn't try to boot her out, and was actually kind of 
comfortable, if a little big for her.  After such a day, she was grateful to sit 
down and relax for a minute.

     A minute stretched to two, and then five.  Hotaru shifted uncomfortably.  
Yasuragi-sempai and Miyuki both sat, apparently comfortable with the silence, 
waiting for what, she did not know.  Keisuke was fidgeting, though, drumming a 
pencil on the table and looking over...calculus homework?  

     Seconds ticked away in the silence and finally Hotaru couldn't help but 
ask, "Um...what are we waiting for, Shirosawa-sempai?"

     Keisuke looked grateful to have a focus.  "The others, Hotaru-chan.  There 
are technically as many of us as there are cards in the deck, you know."

     There was that -chan again.  "So that's,"  her forehead wrinkled as she 
thought, "52, right?"

     "Er, no."  Keisuke looked to Miyuki, but she seemed content to let him 
explain.  "Actually, we're embodiments of the archetypes of the arcana.  There 
are 78 cards in a Tarot deck, but the number cards don't actually have 
archetypes or people like us.  Then the court cards have people, like me, and 
the aces are like the ultimate of that suit.  So there's 20 minor Arcana, and 
then 22 Trumps, like you."  He looked around the table.  "As I understand it, 
this used to be the council's meeting place, and the council was actually all of 
us, all the Arcana.  So there's a chair for each of us."  He looked again to 
Miyuki for encouragement.  She nodded and he continued.  "I don't know of any 
time when all 42 Arcana were active at once.  The Minor Arcana are almost always 
around, but the Trumps don't seem to reincarnate all that often.  And some of 
them, I'm pretty sure, won't ever walk around as people again.  Like the 
Tower... I can't remember if the Tower ever even WAS a person, but now, all of 
that magic and the soul are bound up here, in the Tower Reversed."  He pursed 
his lips.  "At least I THINK that's how it goes.  Anyway, we have the Knight of 
Cups, too."  He pointed to a seat over across from Miyuki.  "Tetsuya doesn't 
always show up for these little meetings of Miyuki's though.  But anyway, we 
always wait ten minutes at the start of the meeting in case some wandering 
Arcana suddenly get's their memory back and decides to join us.  As I understand 
it, that's how Sumire and Miyuki met.  We have to be careful, though.  Some of 
Arcana are with...you know...THEM."

     Hotaru placed her fingers on her temples and started to massage them, 
trying to soothe the headache his explanation had caused.  Putting aside for the 
moment who exactly THEY were, she said, "So, just so I have this 
straight....there are up to...42...*potential lunatics* out there with magic 
powers and the ability to trap me in a little bubble universe?"

     "It's actually more like a dimension,"  Keisuke stalled, "But basically, 
yes."

     Hotaru considered getting up and stalking away from these loonies in a 
major huff, but this was really such a comfortable chair...

     Hotaru drifted off to sleep just in memory of that chair, and the 
feeling of total trust and belonging she had felt while sitting in it.

*****

     Sleeping in is more of an art than a science.  Most people have an inner 
alarm clock, a tiny voice that lets them know they were supposed to be up ten 
minutes ago if they wanted to be on time for the day.  Hotaru was no exception.  
Her little voice did in fact exist, but she had become a master in the art of 
ignoring it.  And so it was that when eight o'clock rolled around and she 
realized she must have forgotten to set her alarm, instead of leaping up and 
hurriedly getting ready for school, she rolled over a few times, stretched and 
went back to sleep.

*****

     "Listen, girl.  Get it right."  The Magician sat underneath the tree, 
sternly lecturing her.  "You can do this."

     "Hmmm?"  Dream-Hotaru was sprawled out on the grass, squinting lazily up at 
the racing clouds through the shimmering shifting leaves of the maple tree.

     "It's all science, plain and simple.  Science is merely observation of the 
way the world works, and you can USE that knowledge to work things your way.  
Once you understand something,  it's easy to manipulate or control it.  You see?  
Knowledge is power.  Start with the basic Elements."

     "I thought we were talking about Magic."  It was more a question than a 
statement.

     "Yes, we are.  Observe."  The Magician waved his finger in a little circle 
and the air followed it, whirling into a tiny funnel before her eyes.  "Air."

     "Earth," he murmured, stabbing his hand deep into the soil.  With a shudder 
a small crack opened up in the earth.

     "Earth," she mirrored, her own hands tangling in the grass as all around 
her wild flowers grew and blossomed.

     The crack began to trickle, and then a flood of water came gushing out of a 
newly formed spring.  "Water."  He smiled.

     "And Fire, little firefly."  The Magician held out his cupped hands, full 
of flames that danced and leapt without burning him.

     Trembling, Hotaru reached out her own cupped hands to receive the fire.

*****


     "Hotaru, sweetie, are you feeling okay?"  Her mother's calm voice startled 
her from her dream as the curtains were flung open to let in the not quite early 
morning light.

     "I'm fine, mom."  She muttered, squinting one golden eye open before 
burying her head in the pillow once more.

     "Okay, dear."  Her mom came over to the foot of the bed and rudely snatched 
the covers.  "Then get to school!  You're going to be late."

     Hotaru grumbled as she put herself together for school.  She'd actually 
been planning to visit Natsu for a few minutes this morning, but there wasn't 
any time anymore.  She finger combed her riotous curls and clipped the sides 
with her favorite ducky barrettes, straightened her socks and gave herself a wink
in the mirror before starting her traditional morning sprint to Hataraku High.


     Yasuragi-sempai was waiting for her at the gates.  "Komatane-san.  Ever 
think of joining the track club?"

     Hotaru was too busy gasping and trying to catch her breath to dignify that 
with an answer.  She was only glad that, this morning, she hadn't run into any 
psycho killers on the way to school.  Sumire couldn't always be there to save 
her bacon, but it gave her a kind of warm fuzzy feeling to know that the stoic 
upperclassman had been keeping an eye out for her.

     "Yasuragi-sempai.  Thank you..."  Hotaru stood and said to no one.  Sumire 
had turned and headed for the school building at a pace that never seemed 
hurried, yet had sent her halfway to the building already.  Other students were 
streaming in from the lawn, and checking her watch, Hotaru jogged to catch up.


*****


     "Ishido-kun."

     "Yes, Kurayami-san?"  Joker looked up from his solitaire game, as cute and
flustered as it was possible for someone like him to be.  He'd been trying to
lay low, the same way he did every day.  Foiled once more, he sighed.

     Lunchtime at nearby Shoshin High was a tense time for Joker. 'Give me a break,' he thought.  Psycho-Maki he could handle, but Sweet and Fluffy-Maki 
he had problems with.  He snickered to himself.  For some reason every day at
school she became a sweet timid 'nice' girl with a crush on him.

     That was all he had ever known her to be before she'd discovered her
powers and turned to the dark side of the force.  It had been pretty annoying back then, and was even worse now that he knew what that stupid tingling feeling he had
about her was.  A lot of things had become clearer when the Fool had awakened.
But so many things were more confused...

     Daytime Maki was such a nice girl, he had trouble trying to figure what she 
saw in him.  Whatever it was, it creeped him out, and he tried his best to avoid 
her.  Of course he also preferred to avoid her outside of school when she was 
her predictable maniac self, so that was neither here nor there.

    "I think we should try to find the others."  She smiled sweetly at him.  
"Others of our kind, I mean.  I would love to see my little page again.  And 
your little friend the Empress.  I *definitely* want to meet her."

     "Of course.  Anything for you, Kurayami-san."  Joker said as he gathered 
his cards, doing his best to make an escape from her cloying sweetness.

*****

    Hotaru sweated through chemistry.  It wasn't her favorite subject, that's 
for sure.  But it was her last class of the day, and she heaved a sigh of 
relief.  She didn't know how the others did it, but pretending that everything 
was normal today had been a big strain on her nerves.  Idly she wondered how the 
others had managed for so long.

     Purposefully she set her way towards the hospital, but she was foiled 
before she even reached the gate.  There seemed to be some sort of gathering 
just outside, a little knot of shifting schoolgirls.  Not all of them were in 
the blue and yellow marking them as from Hataraku.

     With a shrug, Hotaru moved to go around them, but as she was passing she 
felt a peculiar tingling at the base of her neck.

     "Please excuse me,"  a smooth male voice intoned, and the crowd parted to 
reaveal the speaker.  "Thank you, ladies.  I looks like my date has arrived."

     The tingling turned into a shock for just a moment as her eyes met his.  He 
winked one dazzling aquamarine eye at her solemnly as he made his way 
confidently through the crowd of girls.  The breeze rustled his long blue hair 
as he stopped a few steps away and smiled sweetly.  "Hello, Firefly."

     "Umm..."  She didn't recognize this guy, but he called her 'Firefly' 
just like that Joker guy.  He was wearing an unfamiliar uniform.  Her danger 
sense screeched in one ear.  

     He took in her frightened look.  "I'm here to walk you home,"  he said, his 
smile fading slightly.  "Didn't Keisuke tell you?"

     "Keisuke?  Oh, Shirosawa-sempai.  What would he tell me?"

     "That I'm here to walk you home.  We have a schedule for it, you know."

     "I'm sorry, Mr.?"  She waited for a name.

     "Koishikawa Tetsuya, at your service, m'lady."  He bowed floridly.  The 
gaggle of girls that still surrounded him tittered.

     "Tetsuya....oh."  So this was the 'famous' Knight of Cups.  He hadn't 
bothered to show at last night's meeting, a point which seemed to personally 
offend Miyuki in some way.  Shirosawa-sempai HAD felt it necessary to warn her 
away from this playboy.  Tetsuya, he said, left a trail of broken hearts all 
over his own school, and even some here at their own.

     "Yes, oh.  Just in case that Joker shows up again, we're keeping an eye on 
you.  Shall we?"  He held out his arm.  Gingerly she went to take it, then 
snatched her hand back at the electric shock when they touched.

     "Disconcerting, isn't it."

     "Huh?"  Mentally Hotaru bonked herself on the head.  That was eloquence for 
you.

     "That tingle, that feeling.  It's your early warning signal."  Tetsuya 
smiled deprecatingly and lowered his voice.  "You'll feel it if there's another 
Arcana around."

     "Oh."  That would help to explain the strange feeling she had always 
gotten around Yasuragi-sempai.  She blushed.  It also helped explain her 
feeling for Shirosawa-sempai.  She'd always thought that tingle was love, or at 
least a symptom of it.  But he was so good-natured, caring, polite, and such a 
sweetheart, how could she help but fall for such a paragon of masculinity, his 
grace was unsurpassed...

     "Ahem."

     "Sorry, what?"  Hotaru snapped back to reality.

     "Where are we going?"  He asked.

     "Oh, I'm going to the hospital to visit Natsu."  She eyed the thinned crowd 
of hopeful girls, following them at a respectful distance.  "You don't really 
have to babysit me, I can see that you're.....busy."  She tilted an eye towards 
his harem.

     "It's no problem, Hotaru."  He whipped out a little appointment book.  "I 
have you scheduled for the entire afternoon."

     "Hey!"

     "Ouch!"

     "Watch it!"

     A small figure came running through the small crowd of girls.  The scruffy 
boy looked to be about 13.  He flashed a grin and a quick apology over his 
shoulder as he dodged and weaved through them.  Tetsuya turned to see what the 
fuss was all about, but wasn't quick enough to react as the boy plowed straight
into him.  The collision sent them both to the concrete.

     "Oh hey, sorry man, I didn't see you there.  You okay?"  The kid was on his 
feet in a flash, pulling a stunned Tetsuya up and dusting him off.  "There ya 
go, sorry, gotta run!"

     Tetsuya straightened himself up as best he could, ignoring the stinging in 
his palms as he rationalized to himself.  No way was that brat Arcana.  He was 
just getting a little extra shock from Hotaru-chan.  She was next to him now, 
fluttering in a girly way and ineffectually brushing at the dust on his uniform.

     "That kid,"  he muttered to her, and she looked at him questioningly.  
"That kid, I think he's one of us."  He did a quick check of himself.  "And I 
think he STOLE MY WALLET!"  He was yelling now, he knew it, but as he gave chase 
he couldn't stop himself.  "OY!!!  Come back here you brat!"




Okay, here at last is my tweaked, edited and final version of this chapter.
Believe me, I meant for it to be longer, and I tried for more action.  This is
just what came out of my fingers.
Eternal thanks to Delfina and Scott, my prereaders.  This is the first chapter
I've written that actually got a thorough prereading, and I think it's much
better because of it.

Kimberli