Ace of Spades

Kazuma Kenzaki ♠ 「Citta Affiliated | Apt. U-5」

[chalicearrow-blog]

“Are you bored?” Hajime replied, cutting the measured wire off the roll. He glanced up as he set the scissors aside, long enough for his amused smile to not just be directed at the ground.

“We can do something else if you want.” He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to accommodate that, instead focusing back on the materials nearby. Thanks to earlier organization, putting together each small bundle of flowers was as quick as binding them together with floral tape.

[0w0beetle-blog]

“Not at all. We can stay.” It wasn’t boring. Surprising? Yes. He hadn’t expected Hajime to agree to come by the festival whatsoever, let alone spend so much time on an arts and crafts stand. He was happy with it, the smile on his face saying it all, so Kenzaki didn’t mind. He just had to keep his eye on the time so they could visit other spots before everything closed down.

He looked at the few crowns he made himself, uneven and ready to fall apart, and back to Hajime’s. All of them were no less than perfect.

“How are you so good at this?” He shook his own crown and sighed when one of the flowers easily fell. What a sad state.

[chalicearrow-blog]

Sitting cross-legged by the flower crown stall, he was following the given instructions but ignoring the few strangers attending the same lesson. A length of grapevine wire was wrapped around his head. Once he marked where to cut between his fingers, Hajime pulled the wire from his hair and turned his free hand toward Kenzaki.

“Hand that to me when you’re done,” he said, indicating the pair of scissors with a nod of his head.

@0w0beetle

[0w0beetle-blog]

It was nice to relax after running around all morning to prepare the fashion show, so Kenzaki had no complaints when Hajime had focused his attention toward the flower crown stand. That was an hour ago, though, and Hajime didn’t seem to be slowing down. 

He handed the scissors over and took to watching him work instead of doing his own (which weren’t the prettiest anyway). It was interesting. Hajime had a system down, from the wire in his hair to the color coded flowers by his side. It was sort of cute how much he seemed to be enjoying this.

“You know, they said we could make as many as we wanted, but this is a little...”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」The True Self

[oracleabuser]

“O-oh, I never meant it that way–” Immediately, she silenced herself, and for a second or two, she looked down at her feet, and finally spoke up quietly. “It’s not something I’d willingly do…. There was only one time I was okay with the world ending, but….” 

Both her words and steps stopped in their place, and she was silent for a good minute. Just thinking about dying – both here in the Hive and back at Tatsumi Port – was difficult for her. The choice of killing Ryoji, the choice of fighting with her classmates… all of that seemed so long ago.

She brought her head back up, and flashed a small smile, not saying a word.

[0w0beetle-blog]

He had said something out of place, he knew once Fuuka stopped in her tracks, and he stopped as well. Uneasiness bubbled in his chest. What was she talking about? It was then that he realized that he didn’t know about her. Anything about her past was a mystery to him. He never bothered asking before now. She didn’t know much about him either, though, so he guessed they were even.

Kenzaki broke the silence. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” He was interested, yes, but he didn’t want to ruin their blossoming friendship by being as pushy as he normally was.

[chalicearrow-blog]

Tether  |  kenzaki

[chalicearrow-blog]

Hajime smiled, more out of irony than any real cheer. “You sound like that’s all that matters,” he said, and then fell back into silence. It was a precarious statement, and he was able to say it only through a barrier of cynicism. The hopeful part of him, the part ignoring all of the missing information, agreed. This reunion was what mattered. The frustration of this place couldn’t match the relief that the promise they would never meet again was broken.

It seemed best to ease away from thinking about everything that didn’t make sense. Approaching this city was a simpler topic. If he was going to be here for a while, it wasn’t a waste of time. “Do you like this city? When it isn’t in pieces.” It wasn’t like constant danger was any surprise after how long the last Battle Royale lasted. Carefully stepping around cracks in the ground was a little newer, but not that hard to master.

[0w0beetle-blog]

“It is.” He could tell it was an odd joke on Hajime’s part, but he matched the other’s smile sans the sarcasm. “It’s nice to have...,” What were they? Comrades? Coworkers? Friends...? “It’s nice to have someone I know here.” He’d always been awkward, in a way, and making a lot of friends while here wasn’t very...successful.

He jumped over the cracks and debris that were in the way. It was a lot more hazardous than Hajime’s careful side-stepping, but it worked for him. “When it isn’t in pieces? Yeah.” Hive city, despite the circumstances of their stay, was as enjoyable as any other large city he had been in. It was definitely a lot more exciting than average, with all the strange occurrences.

“There are some bad areas, but overall it’s nice. There’s a lot to do here. I haven’t even seen everything and I’ve been here a while.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Adjoin

[chalicearrow-blog]

“I have no use for a toy. It would have been better off with him.” Despite the dismissal, there wasn’t any frustration to his tone. The way children younger than Amane thought was a mystery, but Hajime did appreciate the confirmation of a job well done. He was better than coworkers at getting kids to smile well enough to appease their parents.

The look of vague suspicion was back to celebrate Kenzaki getting to the point. Hajime had asked for a room at Jacaranda to satisfy his own curiosity, and being the one asked wasn’t something he expected. If nothing else, the surprise was from the implicit agreement to dealing with him daily whether there was a need for it or not. 

“There’s an extra room?” Hajime replied skeptically after a moment of silence. It seemed like mentioning that from the beginning would have been the better choice if that was the case, unless Kenzaki was purposefully trying to walk them both in circles. “…I doubt your roommates would appreciate it.” He wasn’t really concerned about himself or them at the moment, but foreseeing the distrust he was used to wasn’t difficult. 

[0w0beetle-blog]

The conversation was suspenseful enough as it was. The silence after he spoke only made it worse and Kenzaki found himself leaning forward in anticipation for Hajime’s answer. He hadn’t asked in the way he wanted to, his original plan of getting to the point seemingly disappearing as soon as he arrived, but he was still hopeful.

“Oh, no. There’s not an extra room.” Not that he knew of. His smile stays plastered on his face, as if Hajime’s questions didn’t change anything. They didn’t, really. Kenzaki already had an idea of what their setup would be and his room was prepared for it (which, if he thought about it, would be embarrassing if Hajime said no). “Since I haven’t seen any of my roommates, I don’t think they’d care. They probably don’t know I’m there yet.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」White Christmas

[watarukurenai]

[ ✥ ]—— “It’s a deal,” Wataru agrees with a small smile, ignoring the muffled protests coming from his hand. Kivat will get tired eventually, and he knows that. With his free hand he accepts the handshake, adding a polite bow to that. An odd encounter turns for the better, and hopefully it will stay that way unless Kivat breaks free.

      … Or bites his hand. No good would come out of accidentally transforming in front of a stranger, so he hopes his bat friend won’t resort to such a stupid move.

      “I’m Wataru Kurenai,” he introduces himself and pulls his hand back. “You don’t seem like someone with bad intentions, but I hope you do understand I get wary when people follow me out of nowhere.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

“Yeah, I do. Sorry again.” He had noticed a little too late, obviously. At least he knew to be more careful now. “It’s nice to meet you, though.”

It seemed like the bat was struggling to escape and while it was funny to watch, Kenzaki knew that making Kivat angrier would make it harder to apologize in the end.

“You can let him out if you want.” He was ready for whatever long-winded tirade Kivat had in store for him and with how much he was struggling beneath Wataru’s jacket, Kenzaki had a feeling that he would be here for a bit.

[busybeesflowershop]

     The sun rises, and the moon sets; a story as old as time. Nothing appears out of the ordinary to those early risers among the citizens in Hive City. For those who live in sector six there is something within the tree laden part of the city that has only happened once before. Signs pop up elsewhere along the other sectors, pointing a certain direction that indicate you to follow. In a large clearing of sector six a ring of mushrooms, as tall as three story buildings, waits openly for all of Hive City to come and visit. A sign holds on the entree way that reads “Welcome To All Those Who Choose to Enter.”

   Inside is an array of sounds, smells, and sights for the faire goers to enjoy. Shops line the mushroom’s that make the walls of the Flower Festival were one can purchase handcrafted items and art. If one follows their nose they will find an array of different foods and wines to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters! Small crowds are littered about as they shift from scene to scene, but most of all you notice the bright colors and shapes of flowers that seem to appear on almost every surface.

                                     Welcome to the Flower Festival.

Continuar lendo

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Adjoin

[chalicearrow-blog]

As he settled into the role of listener again, his expression shifted subtly between amusement (at Kenzaki slowly making himself more at home on his desk) and confusion (at the continued show of pride). Somewhere in there Hajime realized it was strangely-worded concern, and any suspicion over what it was supposed to accomplish faded. It still wasn’t clear what Kenzaki wanted him to do about it, though.

“I’ll look into it.” Getting out of Alpha permanently wasn’t high on his list of priorities, but there were worse things he could do with his time than look into finding an apartment himself. Cost came to mind, and it seemed more likely to cut into his funds than staying put. “Is it expensive here?”

Glancing at what Kenzaki was fiddling with at the moment made him realize it was probably strange that it was on his desk. “A little boy gave that to me at work,” he explained. “I tried to give it back, but he left it and ran after his mother.” It was a small lego figure painted like a pirate. Unlike a drawn picture, he wasn’t sure what to do with a toy aside from keep it for now.

[0w0beetle-blog]

It may have been small, but Kenzaki noticed the look Hajime gave him. It was a relief. If Hajime was interested even a tiny bit, then perhaps his chances were higher than he had originally thought.

“It’s free, I think. I got a letter about moving and a key. That’s all.” He made himself comfortable, moving to sit cross legged on the desk. It said a lot about how little Hajime had if Kenzaki could fit with ease, but that only meant moving would be easy as well. Kenzaki didn’t have much either and he had settled into his apartment fairly quickly.

He set the trinket down. It made him wonder if the child thought Hajime was a fan of pirates or maybe a pirate himself. Children were strange like that. “Maybe he wanted you to have it. Like a gift.” Hajime certainly was treating it like one, keeping it on his desk like so. “You could bring it with you.”

“Nothing said I couldn’t let people stay with me,” he added with a faint smile on his face.

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」The True Self

[oracleabuser]

He had paused after she had told him, and his confusion made complete sense to her. After all, she was like that too, at first. But after she had thought about it, the more the pieces seemed to fit.

That, and her own death seemed to prove it even more.

“Well, how would the scientists keep up with their experiments? After someone dies, they wake up without their powers for a day or two. I think you can call it a sort of ‘reset’….” The way she spoke of it seemed like she had… experience in the ordeal, and when her sentence trailed off near the end, it was easy to suspect that she did experience it.

“But yes, if you did die, you would come back! I think I remember hearing that you could wake up and not remember anything that had happened, though…. I wouldn’t really know.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

It felt like they were in a game and being toyed with. An experiment was only a fancy word for it. “There’s something new about this place every day.”

The real question was how. How were the scientists able to bring someone back from the dead? Then again, how did they do anything? How did they grab people from different worlds and times? How were their powers taken away? How and where was this city built? It was overwhelming to think about all at once.

Her wording worried him. A feat seeing as he was already fretting over her because of earlier. She made it sound like she knew this from experience. “You know, just because you can die and be okay, doesn’t mean you should.”

[chalicearrow-blog]

Tether  |  kenzaki

[chalicearrow-blog]

Hajime followed as requested, returning the paper to his pocket. There was no longer a compass on his wrist to tell which direction to go in, so he would have little idea if they were going the wrong way. The strange abilities and burdens the labyrinth gave seemed to be gone in the city. The exceptions were distorted time, and weakened power; situations Kenzaki suggested were in place before the stone maze. Despite what the red string had to say, it didn’t seem like anything had been illuminated at the end.

“Was all we earned an escape?” It wouldn’t be the first time fighting had absolutely no positive payoff, but the suggestion of finding answers after plenty of confusion was something he’d appreciated. It was possible it was something just offered to one of them, so he decided to chance asking.  “Or did you learn anything?” 

It was easier to consider the situation now that the danger appeared to be over, aside from everything available to trip over or into. At the risk of his concerns sounding strange again, he kept most of the overthinking in his head. “As long as the earthquakes are over, it will be fixed eventually.” 

[0w0beetle-blog]

“It looks like it,” he said, absentmindedly touching the spot on his chest where the Minotaur had hit him. The signs of it were gone, but the memories were there. It was still odd.

He scoffed. “If anything I have more questions now than I did before.” Whatever was happening seemed to be caused by something more complicated than he could understand. If only he could manage to find one of those scientists that were apparently lost during the earthquakes, though he imagined they would be tight-lipped about everything. The answers were far out of his reach, but...

“You’re here now,” a fact he almost couldn't believe was true along with the labyrinth, “We can figure it out.” Just like how Kenzaki was going to figure out how to reach Sector One and the district beneath it. There weren’t as many building around compared to before he was thrown in the maze, so his best guess was they were somewhere in Six. He hoped so. That would make it easier if the trains were down.

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Adjoin

[chalicearrow-blog]

The reason for the enthusiasm wasn’t clear, but it was still contagious. Though Hajime listened in silence, a subdued smile lightened his features. The visits were appreciated, even if that went unsaid.  “Is that your question?” he asked at the end, unable to see where this was going. If anything, it sounded like bragging without further context—’I have a great apartment in a great place. Look where you are.’

“It’s not terrible here.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but Kenzaki had plenty of chances to notice Hajime was out more often than he was in. A hut in a place like Alpha was a shelter, but wasn’t very hospitable. “It’s good that you have a better place. No one deserves District Beta.” At the very least, Alpha wasn’t the worst housing assignment. Only Delta and Epsilon seemed like better choices in the underground, but short explorations made it difficult to tell for sure.

He looked up. “Have you met your roommates?”

[0w0beetle-blog]

“No, no. That wasn’t the question.” He could come right out and ask, but he wanted to make his apartment sound absolutely amazing first. The less Hajime had to be uncertain about, the better. Kenzaki switched from leaning to sitting on the desk itself, tinkering with what little Hajime had on there. The hut really was empty and unlived in.

“I haven’t met any of them. I just finished moving and I think I keep missing everyone, but the apartment is big. We all have our own rooms.” He hadn’t given much thought to his roommates. He knew other people lived there, but he’d seen neither hide nor hair of them since he moved up. Ah, sharing a single bathroom between all these people was going to be a hassle. He’d make sure to keep that detail a secret for now.

“No one deserves Alpha either,” he began to speak again. For some reason, asking Hajime about this was a lot harder than he thought it would be. It was a simple question and yet he was worried about the answer. “It’s nicer on the surface. There are windows and fresh air and it’s closer to everything.”

“Don’t you want to live someplace like that too? Somewhere bright that has a kitchen with actual space?”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Adjoin

[chalicearrow-blog]

Settling into this city wasn’t too difficult. Once he accepted he was stuck there for the time being, Hajime was as driven as ever to make his situation liveable. A job at a rowdy portrait studio wasn’t much, but it was a way to get out of District Alpha and get his hands on a camera. He hadn’t realized how much he took Kurihara’s cameras for granted until they were out of reach. Getting one of his own was enough of a motivator to earn what he could.

As a result of him being out more often than he was in, everything in the hut given to him was mostly left alone. It barely looked lived in, but he didn’t mind as long as it worked as needed. The cell phone he earned eventually was overwhelming at the start, but he spent a few moments each day checking if a Kurihara name had been added to the contact list.

Even without prior warning, Hajime was in for the afternoon. He answered the door shortly after the commotion, a furrowed brow questioning Kenzaki’s presence instead of his words. “Come in,” he said calmly, opening the door a fraction more and stepping aside. The silence was less stifling when there was more than one person in his bare living space.

“What is it?” He took a seat at the desk. He hadn’t checked his phone, but was convinced it hadn’t started ringing at any point. “If you called, I didn’t receive it.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

Kenzaki walked in, taking mental notes on Hajime’s living space. He’d never paid much attention to it. It was similar to where he had been, after all. Now it seemed small and empty. He would be changing that soon, hopefully.

“Oh. I didn’t call.” Actually, he wondered what Hajime thought of the phones that were given to them. They were so compact and completely advanced in every way that it was amazing. That was a question for another day, though. Maybe one of those small talk conversations people had when they were around each other often. Ah, but he was getting ahead of himself. Hajime had to say yes first.

“I came to ask you something important,” he said, the excitement easily recognizable in his voice. He assumed Hajime would be against it, as antisocial as he was half the time, but Kenzaki was adamant about getting past that today. He leaned against the desk, arms crossed and grinning.

“Guess who got his own apartment. I mean, it’s not my own. There are other people, but that’s not the point.”  He had a couple train stops to think about how to approach the topic perfectly, but all his previously planned lines flew out the window now that he was actually here face-to-face. Hajime could be oddly intimidating without doing anything at all sometimes. “How do you like District Alpha? Pretty terrible right? I’m in Sector Five now. It’s one with all the nice shops.” 

[chalicearrow-blog]

Tether  |  kenzaki

[chalicearrow-blog]

Their trip through the maze ended as strangely as everything inside it had been. A partially intact city replaced the closed-off surroundings without warning, and that openness spread in all directions. It was like the labyrinth had never been there at all, and their wounds had been just as imaginary. It was something of a relief, but at the same time, more to question and lose track of reality over wasn’t much to celebrate.

While Kenzaki was still there and Hajime was still wearing his jacket, his own coat was still gone. Looking back didn’t help locate that either, but the area was torn up enough to hide anything caught in a crack in the ground. He checked his pockets a moment later, wondering if anything else had disappeared in that dark void. The photo was still in his front pocket, but with it was a thinner piece of paper. Curious, he pulled it out.

“Where is District Alpha?” he asked, taking a break from staring intently at the typed letters to glance at Kenzaki. “I wonder if it’s just as much of a disaster as where we are now. Is this what it usually looks like?” Some buildings were still standing just fine, but others (and parts of the street) were complete wrecks. It made Hajime uneasy, but at least he could see uninjured people walking not that far away.

[0w0beetle-blog]

“Alpha?” He’d yet to step foot in that district or any of the others except his own. District Beta was disgusting enough on its own and Kenzaki couldn’t help but hope that wherever they placed Hajime was much nicer. He made a face, something between apprehension and disappointment, before speaking again. “I’m in Beta, so you’re probably in the area before mine.”

The current dismal state of the city didn’t change the fact that it was a big circle, a design aspect Kenzaki was grateful for. Despite the size of the city, getting truly lost between areas rarely happened. Now, inside the sectors themselves were different stories. He turned, trying his best to figure out where the labyrinth had left them. There wasn’t much to pinpoint their location and the shaken buildings made it that much harder.

In the end, Kenzaki picked a direction and hoped for the best. He motioned for Hajime to follow him. “Hive City usually looks a lot better than this. Most of it does. There are some areas that aren’t as nice.” The sector he lived below was one example. Maybe if he looked hard enough he would be able to see the cloud of smog that covered it in the distance. “Right before the labyrinth, or whatever that was, there were a bunch of earthquakes so it’s a mess.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」The True Self

[oracleabuser]

She put her hands behind her back, clasping them together. “Ah, um…. You could say that? Its different each time, but stuff like this does tend to happen….” Fuuka had been in Hive for a long time, and she had gotten used to most of the events that went on in the city. Anything that affected her directly, personally, she never got used to, however.

“Everyone comes back, though…. There are those who disappear but they always seem to return. No one can truly die here, I know that, though!” What she said may have worried him a little, but she had to mention it eventually. Not that she’ll mention her own death, but that’s a story for another day, or hopefully never.

Hopefully her house was intact, though; she didn’t really have it in the line of fire, but you couldn’t really expect anything out of this city. The girl just hoped there was at least still food in her kitchen.

[0w0beetle-blog]

“So that’s where the ‘experimenting’ comes from.” If this amount of chaos happened often, Kenzaki had to keep an eye out. A mostly pristine looking city was too good to be true in the end and he should have expected something like this to be thrown at them. The reason for it all still escaped him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight against it.

He didn’t respond at first. Fuuka’s comment flew right over his head before it registered. A look of shock briefly passed through his face, not that she was looking. “Wait. No one can die?” That was...

Impossible? No. It was possible. Kenzaki knew that. The Undead couldn’t die, not really. There was nothing that pointed against the same for them. It sounded like nonsense. Why would the people here suddenly gain a form of immortality? But Kenzaki was inclined to believe Fuuka regardless of how unlikely it seemed. 

“So if I...? I would just come back? Like nothing?”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Santa Baby

[shouichitsugami]

[ Ω ]—— His face practically screams VICTORY the second his gloves have been accepted. “Great! Keep them for as much as you like!” Even if it means having to buy new gloves despite being short on money; it’s not about himself, though. He still has it better than this man.

      “I could stay a bit, at least before dinner time!” Shouichi hopes Hikawa won’t be too angry that he’s going to return late, and especially won’t make a mess in the kitchen should his companion decide to make a meal without waiting for him.

      “I’m Shouichi! Nice to meet you, Kenzaki-san!”

[0w0beetle-blog]

Smiling truly was contagious and Kenzaki beamed in return, something he regret as soon as the cold hit his teeth again. At least his hands were warm for the time being. Less could be said about the rest of him. He shivered one last time before composing himself. There was no need to make Shouichi fret even more.

“It’s nice to meet you too. Even like this,” he motioned toward his uniform. It had been a while since he had to take odd jobs here and there. Being with BOARD had spoiled him in that aspect. “Ho, ho, ho,” he said, jokingly.

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Ice, Ice, Baby

[makotohikawa]

“Most of them look human, but are much more capable than that. Fortunately, plenty of them are on the side of safety, but the rest…” He sighed. “Some of them like to kill others, and some just like to set as much on fire as possible.

“The rest are visually closer to monsters, though even a lot of them are humanoid in structure. I don’t know if you’d have heard the term, but we called such things ‘Unknown’ where I came from. They might leave you alone, or they might try to kill you as well.” 

It was only after explaining all this that he realized he might have just given the other man reason to panic. Visibly unsettled himself, Makoto added quickly, “I mean, not that you should be too concerned. If you need protection, we can help you. I don’t really think it’s more dangerous here than anywhere else.” 

[0w0beetle-blog]

“Unknown?” Close to what he expected, yet completely different. Maybe he had misheard. “I know about the Undead.” The existence of the Undead wasn’t exactly common knowledge, but Kenzaki failed to see the harm in talking about it to a policeman. A policeman in a strange city they were stuck in, at that. “They sound alike.”

Unlike Hikawa, Kenzaki was wasn’t fazed much. Already expecting there to be monsters running amok made it less surprising, though the news that there were deaths happening as a result was disturbing. Was that why he was brought here? It would make sense, if anything here was actually able to lean toward sensible, anyway.

 “I can protect myself. Others too, if you ever need help.”

[0w0beetle-blog]

「♠」Adjoin

@chalicearrow

District Alpha reminded him too much of the fake labyrinth, he decided. Dark, dreary, wet, and now there was an added humidity that didn’t make it any more likable. At least the creatures standing around didn’t attack him. They only stood silently. Some ignored him outright while others stared until he was out of sight. It was eerie.

Still, it was better than where he lived or where he used to live. The sudden housing change had been welcome. To go from somewhere toxic and dangerous to being able to wake up to the sun outside his window was pleasant. Kenzaki hadn’t realized how much he missed it.

That was why he was there now, approaching the hut that belonged to the person he needed to talk to. There was nothing to discern them from one another, they all looked the same, but Kenzaki knew exactly the one he needed. He had visited enough in the past few weeks that it was easy. Now, his visit had a purpose other than just checking up on things. Today he had an important question. How to approach it was another thing to think about entirely.

Kenzaki knocked quickly and loudly. There was no point to this if he wasn’t even home at the moment. Calling would have been easier, but this didn’t have the risk of being hung up on. “Hajime? Are you there?”