Hotaru curled up in bed, cluthing a teddy bear to her chest. She was afraid. In one evening, Miyuki had tried to kill her and Keisuke had put her in the hand of a woman hell-bent on killing Sumire. Hugging the bear was all she could do to keep from crying. She wanted to call Natsu, or Tetsuya, but she knew Natsu would be catching up on old times with Chris, and despite being fellow Arcana, she still didn't know how to get in touch with Tetsuya. So there she was, huddled up in a corner with a bear. She cursed herself for being so trusting of people she barely knew. Hotaru attempted to reassure herself. She was at her home, she had to be safe, right? She then recalled how easily Joker had gotten into her house before. Her knuckles quickly became white as she gripped the bear. *thunk* Hotaru looked up. What could that have been? *thunk* Her window. Hotaru tentatively got out of bed, and made a few steps towards her window. *thunk* Her hand moved to open the blinds, and in one swift, frightened motion, she yanked the cord to open them. Meeting her scared, anticipative eyes in the window, stood Joker, wrapped in cloak, and looking more than worse for wear. He grinned, and pointed in the direction of her front door, and promptly collapsed. ************************ Arcana Created by Scott Schimmel Chapter 15: The Devil's Dance By Cactus ************************ Nakamura let out a deep sigh. They had reported the unaggravated death of their comrade to the station, and as soon as they did, he was back up to his knees in paperwork. He thought of investing in shackles to make his partner at least cover some of the workload. Nakamura rubbed his temples. Officer Minakata had been old enough for a stroke, he admitted to himself. But there had to be another factor at work. Strokes seemed a bit too random for two-time hospital escapee. The Ishido kid was a bit much for someone his age. What motive did he have for attacking the girl? How had escaped a hospital twice with severe injuries. Why? Nothing seemed to add up. He set his hand back on his desk and took a lengthy, deep breath. He looked at the paperwork and set to adjusting his typewriter when he noticed the deck of cards still sitting on his desk. He scratched his head, and picked them up. When reason failed, perhaps chance could make some sense of this. He amused himself shuffling the cards, and threw the top one onto his desk at random. The Magician. Another. Fortune. Another. The Fool. The Fool...What had Ishido been called? Joker. Another card. The Queen of Pentacles. Nakamura threw down several more cards. The Ace of blades, the Knight of Blades,The Knight of Cups and several others. Nakamura looked at his desk. They had fallen to his desk into some sort of circle. He looked at all the cards, respectively, and found that many of them seemed to land on top, or near one another. As though certain cards were connected somehow. The Fool had landed on top of the Magician, and the Queen of Pentacles landed near those two cards. Nakamura stacked them back up and put them on his desk. Nothing made sense anymore. ************************ "I ask you to do one simple thing, and the incompetence of your co-workers fails to do even that! He's escaped again and...!" Maki took a moment to regain her composure," Listen...Uncle. You are doing everything in your power to find him, aren't you?" Sagara took a drag off the cigarette hanging from his lips, "Yeah. But noone saw where he went. And we lost an officer...Nakamura seems to think it was the Ishido kid's fault. But the doc that checked him out said he died of a stroke. Natural causes." "That bastard's luck is incomparable..." Maki muttered to herself, "Very well, uncle. Just be sure to keep me informed. And be sure to tell me the instant you recapture him. Your good fortune depends on it," With that, Maki calmly stalked out of the police station. Sagara took another drag. Shit, he cursed to himself. Girl's barely out of high school and she's got connections in the police...I shouldn't even be doing this. But I've gotta keep it up. Much as I don't like my "niece", cancer treatment isn't cheap and...Damn. Sagara headed back towards his partner's desk. He noticed the disarray of Nakamura's desk as he walked up. Those cards were strewn about the desk and Nakamura had his head in his hands. "S'matter partner? Playing 52 card pick up and losing?" Sagara grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the desk, sitting down. "Y'know, I remember a time when it used to be simple. Some punk kid steals a vcr, you catch him, I type it up. When did things stop being simple?" Nakamura muttered from under his hands. "Man, you're taking this too seriously. Maybe it was just a coincidence and the kid sneaked out?" Sagara flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette. "He was strapped to the bed, Sagara. The guard goes in, has a stroke, and he manages to get out his bed. I somehow think coincidence is out of the picture..." Nakamura threw another card from the top of the deck to the large circle. The Page of Pentacles. He sighed to himself, " And besides that, Ikari was in good health, wasn't he? Apart >from being a year away from retirement, he was in pretty good shape." "Y'wanna know what I think?" Sagara put out his cigarette in ahlf empty coffee cup. "What?" "I think you oughtta take the rest of the day off. You've been working way too hard, man. You're letting a simple case get to you. And when's the last time you had a date, anyways?" "Shaddup." "Seriously, man. Get out of here. I'll take care of the rest of >this." Sagara motioned towards the old typewriter. "You? Right." Nakamura started laughing quietly. "I mean it. Take off." "This I gotta see. Alright. Take care, partner. You sure you know how to work this thing?" Nakamura smirked. Sagara made a rude gesture as his partner walked off. After his partner left, Sagara stared at the typewriter. For several long seconds, neither man nor machine moved. Then, Sagara made a quick scan of the office area and caught a young officer walking by... "Hey, Miki, I don't suppose I could ask you to do me a favor?" He gestured towards the typewriter. ************************ Chris and Natsu laughed as they walked down the street. They had seen the sights of the area, and were having a generally good time of reminicsing. After a while they made their way into a small coffee place. They had both been sitting and laughing over a few cups of semi-decent coffee. "So, how has this school year been?" Chris walked alongside Natsu, his hands resting on the back of his head. "...I guess it's been okay so far. " Natsu stared at the ground for a while. "Right, right. So what's with the gloomy attitude all of >sudden?" Chris leaned back in his chair, "Something bad happen?" "I...I kinda got stabbed." Natsu stared at her coffee. "WHAT?!"Chris sat bolt upright with a concerned expression on his face. "Shhh. Keep it down. It's ok. I'm fine now. I got out of the hospital about a week ago." Natsu sighed as Chris calmed down a little. "Well, who did it? I want to find and hurt the little bastard..." Chris spoke through clenched teeth. "Easy. He was trying to get Hotaru..And I tried to stop him. A girl we know on the kendo team stopped him. But I'm fine now. It's ok." Natsu put a hand on Chris' arm to calm him down slightly. "Why would anyone want to hurt Hotaru? She's harmless. One of >the nicest girls ever..." "I know...Hotaru's life has been a little weird lately. But everything is alright for now, so let's just let it go, okay?" Natsu gave him a look informing him that the conversation was over and the topic needed to be changed. "Fine," Chris folded his arms, "Whatever. If you don't want to tell me something..." "Chris..." Natsu sounded frustrated. "No, it's fine. We've only known each other since we were bron, so if you want to keep something from me, fine. I'm gonna head back to the house. I'll see you later, Natsu." Chris threw a few bills onto the table for the coffee and calmly walked out of the coffee house. "Chris...I wish I could tell you..." Natsu wiped her eyes and walked slowly out of the coffee house. Nothing was very normal anymore. Natsu walked down the street. She saw no sign of Chris down the street. How could I have been so foolish, she though to herself. I should have kept the stabbing to myself. *Natasha....* Natsu looked up. She glanced all around her, to find noone was looking at her. She backpedaled into an alley outside the coffee shop. She stumbled into a trashcan knocking it over. She turned and started to run down the alley. *Natsu...* She looked around again, still finding herself to be alone. She began to panic by this point and ran down the alley until she found she had crawled into a dead end. *Turn around, Natsu. Face your destiny...* ************************ Hotaru half carried, half dragged Joker slowly into her house. She didn't stop to think about her actions or what she was doing. Her parents weren't home, she couldn't call the police. She was no longer just another person. She was something else. And the fact that Joker hadn't tried to kill her in at least a few days assauged her fears and she convinced herself to get him inside. He wasn't helping much, either. Joker was slipping in and out of >conciousness, and that made getting him into a bed that much more difficult. Once he finally lying down, she was able to assess what kind of condition he was in. After looking over him, she had no idea as to why he could escape a hospital and make it here... Hotaru went into a hall closet and tried to find something. As much as she didn't want him to die, she still didn't trust Joker, so Hotaru set about finding some kind of blunt object. She found only an old umbrella of the her mother's but she pulled it out anyways, and returned to the other room. She returned to find Joker sitting up and coughing his lungs out. He looked up to meet her gaze and gave a weak smile. He motioned towards the umbrella. "Still don't trust me? I don't blame you. I'm sure by now you're expecting your own mother to make an attempt on your life, eh?" Joker laughed, and immediatley winced. "How--" "How did I get out of the hospital?" Joker looked on as Hotaru nodded in confirmation, "Well. Would you believe blind luck? The prision guard had a stroke, and fell onto my bed lossening some of the straps. And I ran like the wind. I really couldn't think of any decent place to go, so I came here. Happy to *cough* see me?" Hotaru's knuckles tightened on her umbrella. She stared directly through Joker, and kept a short distance away from him. She debated her Options. She could run, but that would leave him here when he parents returned. She could call the police...But he's escaped twice now. Or she could trust him. "Do you...Need anything?" Hotaru still kept him at umbrella's length. "Such a kind hostess. *Cough* Can I get a glass of water?" Joker lay back on the small sofa. Hotaru nodded and walked backswards to the kitchen, constantly preparing herself for an attack. She retreived the water with one hand, always facing the doorway, and quickly came back, setting his water a comfortable distance from her. Joker graciously accepted the water, and drank it in several quick gulps. "So...What did you do with your time before your life became hell?" "Excuse me?" Hotaru looked up at him. "Before you became Arcana. You play sports, or something?" Joker held the glass, calmly making conversation. "...What are you talking about?" "What, you think I was always a knife toting maniac? I had to be awakened. Just like you," Joker smiled, "Not that I did much with my time. I read alot. Nothing very special. Now I'm something better than people will ever be..." "I read alot, too..." "Hm?" "Reading. I read when I can. Natsu makes fun of me for it..." "I guess we have more in common than we'd like to admit." Joker smiled from ear to ear, "Little Firefly. ************************ Natsu turned around. She feared what she was about to meet. Why was this happening to her? She wasn't one of Hotaru's people...The Arcana..Was she? She nticed a distinct warm glow as she turned around. *Hello, Natsu* A sword? A long, gleaming sword was driven into the pavement in front of her. A sword? Where had she seen it before. Natsu stared in the sword in awe as she remembered her dream. The swords were identical. But that was impossible... *Natsu, don't doubt yourself. You can change what has to be. You can learn what you don't know. Just pick up the sword. It must begin with a single step.* Natsu took a step towards the sword. ************************ Authors notes: Argh! Argh! I think I like what I'm doing here, but I'd like your input, Del. I wasn't sure if I should continue on Scott's angle...And if I was, how? I tried this, but if you don't think it works, just lemme know and I'll figure out a way to fix it, make it a kind've filler plot. I really haven't had much time. Maybe Illyria-san will give me til Saturday for prereading...Thanks!