Archons of the Elite

Vol.2: Consequences

Ayanokouji POV

I walked towards Venti who'd been muttering to himself worryingly for the past few minutes before speaking up.

"Are you-"

My attempt to question him was shortly cut off however by him looking up with an almost soul piercing gaze.

"You're lying."

I hadn't even said anything I could lie about?

"I'm sorry but I don't know what you're talking about."

He giggled softly.

"Stop lying Kiyo."

His eyes went harsher than I was used to as he looked deep into my own, uncaringly gazing into the emptiness they housed as he continued.

"Changing yourself to be free is not the same as freedom."

I tilted my head and looked down at the shorter boy.

"How a cage is escaped is irrelevant, what matters is that it has been."

He smiled somberly, the cruelty in his eyes dulling slightly.

"I thought that once. That being free was all that mattered. But freedom is like a playing card, it doesn't matter if it's out of the deck unless you're holding it."

I studied him for a moment, I didn't agree, but I understood his point at least.

Turning, I began to walk to walk away, this conversation wasn't moving anyway.

"What card are you, Ayanokouji, and which one do you want to be?"

Glancing behind me I saw the bard smiling as he looked into the sky.

"You see, I'm the joker, I'm unique, an interesting card, but generally useless, and when I'm drawn, it's never the game I'm good in."

He looked me up and down.

"I think you're an ace of... Clubs. To someone who didn't play, you'd simply look like a low card, no fancy design, it seems less recognisable than the spade, and is less aesthetic than the red sets."

He grinned and began to giggle softly.

"But to anyone with even basic knowledge of what you are, you can be an easy win against most other hands, an ace is an ace after all, it doesn't matter if it looks as good as the others."

A short step forward put him directly in front of me.

"I don't suppose I can consider you to be in my hand, could I?"

I couldn't help but be mildly impressed. He was interesting, and not just as a morale booster or leader. Though I felt that cards was a strange metaphor, the concept behind the majority of such games relying on luck and intuition more than other analogies I'd heard of, such as chess for example. However...

"Who knows."

He chuckled softly at my words.

"Hehe~ well I suppose I have places to be, see you Kiyotaka."

Ei POV

I winced slightly as I woke, my hands burning with the pain of the break from earlier.

I felt a small tear come to my eye, huh, it'd been a while since that happened...

Morax... I'm so sorry for what I did.

While I was certain anyone would tell me that he'd been just as rough, I was confudent that he'd only wanted to let me have the duel I'd longed for, my uninjured fist clenching as I realised how badly I'd messed up.