In a closed room, lined with books and lit with candles, a lone figure sat, hunched over a desk. A Tarot deck lay scattered on the old-fashioned writing desk; the remains of a reading were clear upon it, as was the fact that some of the cards had been swept out of position. Unusually, the reading appeared to have consisted of most of the Major Arcana. "Disaster and dissolution, choice and change, the Fool and the Magician in the same circuit," the figure muttered in a voice wizened with age. "This is not the way it should be. This is the only way. The only way!" The cards lay on the wood, silent and unchanging, the painted images flickering in the candlelight. ARCANA Chapter Three: A Gathering Of Omens Concept by Scott Schimmel Chapter by Raye Johnsen (raye_j@hahoo.com) Forrester Natsu was used to standing out. She'd had to be; a half-blooded gaijin in a nation as insular as Japan always attracted attention. It was one of the reasons why she always made friends with the shyer girls in her classes. They felt better about being brave enough to make friends with the outsider, and she attracted all the attention they felt uncomfortable with. It was a good bargain, in her opinion. But right now, she was feeling more than a little put-upon. Attracting attention is all very well, but when you're attracting the attention of a crazy guy who dresses funny, calls himself "Joker" and carries a very big knife, it definitely has its hazards. The cut on her side was *definitely* no joke. Neither was the doctor's decree she lie still in bed. She was also getting used to being bored out of her mind. She hadn't turned on the hospital's TV (her mind might be slowly turning into mush from boredom, but she didn't have to actively court mushdom with badly dubbed reruns of American sitcoms, she reasoned) and she was *not* going to give into her mother's campaigning for an 'ordinary' daughter. Those copies of Margaret and Hana To Yume would remain on the chair. Unread. Definitely. But the only alternative was a six-month-old copy of Japanese Vogue. And Hana To Yume did feature SF and fantasy stories. Shoujo SF, but still, not a *total* brain drain... The bishounen on the cover had absolutely *nothing* to do with it, she told herself, as she reached out for the magazine. Nothing at *all*. "You're looking good." Natsu yelped and swung herself round to face the door of the room, hissed in pain as her wound protested, and gasped in shock as she saw her visitor. Recoiling, with her hands clutching convulsively on the thin hospital blanket, she lost her balance and fell off the other side of the bed. She untangled herself from the blanket and looked up over the edge of the bed to see Joker lifting an eyebrow at her. "That's not how most young ladies react to young men bearing flowers," he commented, lifting his hands so she could see the bouquet of carnations he held. "I'm not most young ladies," Natsu retorted in embarrassment. "So I see," Joker replied, walking to the chair beside the bed. "For one thing, most young ladies aren't trying to stay as far away from their visitors as possible." "I'm sorry, but the last time you got close to me, I ended up in the hospital. Please forgive me if I don't want to lengthen my stay!" Joker chuckled as he laid the flowers on the hospital dresser. "I understand. But I told you, I was after the firefly. If you'd left, I wouldn't have hurt you." He made a puckish face at her. "As you yourself admitted to the firefly and your rescuer!" Natsu opened her mouth, paused, and then shrugged. "I guess that much is true. I *did* say that. *But* -" she warned as he smirked, "- that's not to say that it *is* true!" "Oh pretty lady, you wound me!" "Is it fatal?" "A nice girl shouldn't sound so hopeful." "I am not a nice girl." "No, you're an *interesting* girl." Joker stood, then, and looked down at her, his face and tone suddenly blank. "Don't hang around your friend anymore." Natsu frowned. "What?" she replied. He suddenly grinned. "Oh, don't be like *that*! It's just that I'm going to kill the firefly, you see, and it just wouldn't be nice to kill you as well. And if you're around her when I do kill her, I'll just *have* to kill you too, and I'd rather not. Blood's so messy, you know." The usually-chatty Natsu found herself speechless at this pronouncement, so Joker managed to bounce out the door unchallenged. He was, however, followed by an issue of Japanese Vogue, hurled with some force. There was no cry of pain though, so Natsu was forced to conclude that she hadn't hit him. The nurse, when questioned, hadn't been aware of him at all. Much less which way the psychotic jester had gone. /Damn,/ Natsu concluded. /Hotaru, be careful. Please. Oh, *damn*!/ *** *** *** "Damn *pickpocket*!" Koishikawa cursed, as he chased the urchin in question. "GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET! Do you *know* what you're doing to my *schedule*?" Hotaru sprinted along beside him, saving her breath for running. She wasn't a track person, the early morning 3km dash-to-school being more a case of mind over matter than anything else. That and the fact she always napped through homeroom. "GOTCHA!" he cried, making a dive and tackling the child. The wallet dropped out of the kid's hand, and Hotaru quickly captured it. She bent down and looked straight into the child's eyes, seeing hunger, desperation... and a little something more. Hotaru made a swift decision, catching the child's hand. "Hey, Tetsuya-san," she said. "A change of plans. Let's go to a burger place." "Huh?" said the child, because she hadn't let go. "Huh?" said Koishikawa, because she was still holding his wallet. "Don't worry, I'll pay for - I'm sorry, I don't know your name," Hotaru told the child. "I'm Hanako," the girl said. "A *girl* stole my wallet?" asked Koishikawa, in rhetoric disbelief. Hotaru gave him a sidelong glance. "The Knight of Cups, of all people, should know that girls can do *anything*," she said calmly. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat, Hanako." *** *** *** "I think I'm lucky I got my allowance this morning," Hotaru muttered as Hanako scarfed down her third cheeseburger and second giant milkshake. "I think I'm lucky you volunteered to pay for her," Koishikawa muttered. "I'll pay for you, but I don't think I have enough money for both of you." "I think you both should tell me why you're giving me this food," Hanako announced. "Not that I'm complaining about getting it." Hotaru shrugged. "You know anything about a Western fortune-telling system, using cards, called Tarot?" "I saw an anime called Escaflowne on a TV in a shop window a couple years back," Hanako replied. "It was weird. The girl there, she could tell the future with these cards she called Tarot." Koishikawa shrugged. "Same thing. We're all manifestations of the cards." Hanako took a slurp of her milkshake thoughtfully. "I don't know that word," she said. "He means, some people have been born who have the abilities of the cards," Hotaru explained. "He's one, apparently so am I, and we think you might be too." Hanako gazed at them again, unreadably. "Do you transform into anything?" "No." "Do you hafta wear embarrassing outfits with lace and ribbons?" "No." "Are you the reincarnations of ancient princes and princesses?" "No." "Do you get a talking pet?" "Not unless one of the card's abilities is talking with animals, and then they always *did* talk to you." "Do we hafta fight demons from another dimension?" "No." "Do we get anything out of it?" "No." Hanako finished her milkshake. "So I'm not a magical girl." Hotaru traded an uncomfortable glace with. "No. None of us are." "Okay." "Okay?" said Koishikawa. "What do you mean?" Hanako lifted an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I believe you. Nobody would make up a story like that just to watch me eat, and that's all you got out of telling me." "I think you might like to meet some of the other Arcana, too," Hotaru ventured. Hanako shrugged. "Okay. Got nothin' better to do." "Nothing better? How old *are* you?" "Ten. I think." "You *think*?" "I've been on the streets a while." *** *** *** And that was all Hanako would say of her history. Hotaru asked her to wash her face, and after being told they were going to visit one of Hotaru's friends in hospital, she did. While Hanako was in the restaurant's rest room, Koishikawa pulled out a Tarot deck. "While she's co-operating, let's find out who she is," he suggested. Hotaru nodded. "That's a good idea." "What's a good idea?" asked a voice at their elbow. The two of them turned to find themselves facing an extraordinarily pretty child. Her clothes were still ragged and filthy, but the face now revealed was desperately lovely. "Hanako?" They both asked increduously. "I knew it," the girl groused. "People always stare at me an' I hafta put mud on me so I don't get picked up by the pimps." Hotaru swallowed at this casual mention of a darker Tokyo than the one she knew. "We thought that finding out who you are might be a good idea." Hanako stared at Hotaru with her too-old eyes, shrugged and said, "Yes. Let's do it." Koishikawa held out the Tarot pack. "Shuffle if you need to, or just hold them," he told her. "When one feels comfortable in your hand, turn it over." "What if it's not the right one?" Hanako demanded suspiciously. "It will be," Hotaru assured her. Remembering her own initiation, she chuckled. "Sorry," she apologised to two accusatory stares. "I was just remembering when I did this. I turned over the card and nobody could believe I was the Magician, not even me, so I turned over the next and it was the Magician again. And then the next, and it was the Magician again. We did it five times and we got five Magician cards lying out on the Council table and I honestly thought the sempai were going to flip right there..." she giggled again. "Okay," Hanako said, and began to shuffle, rather clumsily. She cut the cards twice and then she turned over the top card. "Well," said Hotaru. "Interesting," Koishikawa added. He looked up. "Good day, Hanako, the Page of Pentacles. I am Koishikawa Tetsuya, the Knight of Cups, and I am very pleased to meet you." *** *** *** Hanako, Hotaru and were discussing what to tell Natsu as they entered the hospital. Hotaru was all for telling her everything, because she was already involved and Koishikawa was for letting the matter slide, while Hanako simply remained silent and listened to them. They were not expecting Natsu to jump up out of her bed, quite literally, and hug Hotaru. "Thank goodness you're all right!" she said, as she released the stunned Hotaru. "Uh, Natsu? What's up?" Hotaru asked feebly. Natsu was never affectionate, not like *that*. "*Joker*, that's what's up! He just visited me and said not to hang around you, he was going to kill you!" "Joker was *here*?" demanded Koishikawa. "Yes. Less than an hour ago." He looked over at Hotaru. "Looking for you?" "I don't think so," Natsu told him. She pointed at a bundle of carnations in a vase on the dresser. "He brought me those." "He could've bought them at the hospital gift shop," Hotaru told her. "Hotaru, carnations are out-of-season right now. They're only available from a greenhouse or a very expensive florist, and the hospital gift shop doesn't have any. Joker came prepared for a hospital visit." *** *** *** Another panelled room. Another seated figure, but this one was clad in scarlet motley. "The queen's loyal courtier, abandoned, now follows the firefly," he muttered. "The Knight of Cups shelters her, and so does the World itelf." Joker grinned savagely to himelf. "I wonder if she realizes just how bright she burns, our firefly magician? Everything she touches is warmed by her light." He dealt the cards he was holding in a vicious arc, fanning them around himself. "Choice, yes, but what to choose?" he asked the air. Laying down the cards again, he studied them a second, then swept them all, with a grandiose gesture, into the air. "Land how you will, for you're not answering me tonight!" and he swung himself out of the room. He did not see the Fool Card land on top of the Three of Swords. Nor how the two cards were then covered by the Tower. *** *** *** AUTHORS' NOTES... 1. Many, *many* thanks to Delfina for prereading this part! 2. The role of the Page of Pentacles is very different in all of the (six! O.o) books on the Tarot I read to research this part, but all of them agreed that the Page is a loyal person, that the Suit of Pentacles (or Coins) relates to the material or physical world, and that it's a masculine card. I thought that a street kid would be *very* grounded in the physical, that Hotaru could use a sidekick, and that screwing with a gender definition would be fun. 3. The final Tarot reading is open to interpretation, but the Three of Swords usually means a person who's used to being a loner, a trailblazer and independent, (the message in this card is usually read as a need to either develop those traits or to accept a helping hand when it's offered) while the Tower usually means disaster looming. So how it goes is up to you! 4. Please direct any and all comments to raye_j@yahoo.com.