realityshifted | a second miracle

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umineko no naku koro ni (d1) bernkastel

a second miracle

[ A small tea table is just right there, in the middle of the plane. A solitary figure sits at it, and atop it is a chessboard. All of the pieces are scattered across the table except for Bernkastel's and the pink, blonde witch on the other side of the board. Every now and then, she'll take a sip of her tea and maybe rearrange her pieces in a certain way that only she understands, but scatters them again.

Directly in the middle of the board, Bernkastel takes the pieces of the little girl swinging a purse, and sets her in the middle. ]

You can be a stand-in piece.

[ Eventually... she notices a piece that should not be on her game board. She takes it and lifts it up behind her, as if there was someone who would take it from her.

The stars behind her have been disguising thousands of pairs of cats eyes, and finally one large cat emerges from the scenery to sink its teeth into the piece, messily gnashing it to bits until there's nothing. ]

Thank you.

[ Back to her game. ]

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[That is creepy. But now it is time to nose into business that does not concern him, as he does.] Planning for a game?

Indeed. [ She didn't talk much when she was thinking. ] There's quite a few favorable methods to choose from.

[Satoshi takes the chair across from her without asking.] Tell me about them.

There's a straightforward method for taking the piece directly that would close the game quickly.

I'm not very interested in it, though.

Because then you don't have to think anymore. [And it's boring. That's what he assumes, at any rate.] Are you sure you can win if you play another way?

Yes... but one king taking one piece on the chessboard bears no strategy. I need a real opponent.

[A tall, imposing figure in a drab coat watched her game from a distance, quietly. Tendrils of smoke sprawled out from his lit cigarette reaching for the star-studded roof of the Plane.

After the unwanted piece was disposed of, Gin drew closer, the light rustling of fabric and quiet footfalls the only sound he made. A short, dry laugh.

He couldn't make heads or tails of her little game, but it was just as well.]

Bernkastel. [His voice was calm and almost genial, but unfeeling, with a gravelly texture from his smoking habit.

He stood before her with his hands in his pockets.] A game for one?

[What he doesn't say is that she needs a real chess set, and it's her own fault for only having so many pieces on the board. He reaches over to pick up Lambda's piece.] Who is this?

A fellow witch.

But since she's not here, there's no point in keeping her on the board.

You're welcome to take the other seat, if you like. [ She starts putting the pieces back in place, leaving the unfamiliar, strawberry-haired girl swinging a purse in the middle, however. ]

I've simply been playing out... strategies.

Is that so?

[He calmly takes a seat before her, casually dangling a hand on the back of the chair, leaving the rest of his arm to dangle off the back as he leaned back, the fedora coming slightly askew. His body language was relaxed and casual— perhaps overly so— but exuded confidence nonetheless.

A faint metallic scent clung to him, as well as a somewhat stronger scent of something burnt; of course, there was also the usual scent of sulfur. He looked somewhat disheveled, for reasons other than the tipped hat, but he didn't seem to notice or care.]

[ A working man, of course. She had to assume whenever he made time for the Plane, it was after 'work'. And perhaps he wanted to check up on Bernkastel's progress since their meeting? She'd simply have to prove she'd been working on her research since then. Ignoring the rules of chess, she picked up two pieces, and put them behind the little girl.

It was the pieces of the man in the yellow suit with glasses and the man with the red hair, occupying the 'king's' piece. When she moved her hands away from them...

Their hair colors had changed. The redhead now had black hair, and the bespectacled one had blue. A nice hint as to how far she had gotten. ]

I'm getting there. Learning the defensive strategy, so to speak.

[Of course, she'd be right on all accounts.

He watched with mild interest. He wasn't startled by this display of power; compared what he had seen from her before, this was about as shocking as a children's magic show.

But the message hidden in the act was not lost.] I see.

[He was not a talkative one. He seemed to have settled upon watching her for now.]

There's a few more I could place... [ But she doesn't deem them worth mentioning.

She takes her piece, standing on the white pedestal, and positions it opposite of the three pieces. Her hands hover over the discarded seeking out one to represent him-- there weren't many good matches. The blondes were all girls, and the two actual snipers were the rabbit girls to add insult to injury. She could... but she didn't think he'd appreciate her sense of humor.

So she just made him a new piece instead. ]

However, this is what I'm working with so far.

[A wise choice, although, to be truthful, it wasn't likely to bother him that much.

He did not respond with words and his features hardly shifted. All he did was watch. It could be assumed that he was listening, however.]

[ That leaves her with one extra piece on her board now with the addition of one... that won't do. She picks up the piece of the golden witch in the ballgown. Worthless. She tosses it behind her shoulder for her cats to once again, lunge out of the scenery to rip apart. Otherwise, she has absolutely no reaction. ]

You've noticed, right?

[ She points to the now black-haired pointing man behind the girl with the purse. ]

In order to win any game of chess, you need to take the king.

Yeah.

[He finally does speak, lifting his head somewhat, so his dull green eyes could peer out at her between his barely parted long bangs and the shadows cast by his hat.

After a moment, he spoke again.]

You're trying to prolong it, aren't you?

I'm not prolonging anything. I'm working as witches do. Setting up the game to leave no--

[ Flicks over the blue-haired piece. ]

-- Loose--

[ Flicks over the black haired piece. ]

-- Ends.

[ Predictably, flicking over the little girl.

Which was not a lie. He was free to take action whenever he wanted, kill the girl himself. Take her hints and take action there as well. To absorb every single factor and eliminate them before they could be a problem was how Bernkastel worked. ]

If I may ask, what is it to you if one girl dies just because you don't have enough proof on your end, anyway? Why not kill her just in case?

[ And that was a dodge. She'd only gathered enough information that the 'king' was probably a great source of protection, and the bishop, a (dubious? Though she had spoken to him, she couldn't cast down how strong of a verdict) source of protection 'on the other side'. But taking the king would break the rook undoubtedly.

And it was definitely true she could get any information she wanted out of this game at any time and end it within minutes.

But that wasn't how she worked, either. ]

Far be it from me to question it, then. [His voice was laced with sarcasm as he smiled at her moves.

But at her question, there was a subtle change in his expression, although difficult to read. It passed very quickly, lasting for barely a second, before he relaxed into that same smile, though he now brought his hand down from the back of the chair to rest it on his thigh instead.]

It doesn't mean a thing to me. [His tone is as steady as ever and there's nothing to indicate deceit; she should know this to be true.] But, before she dies, I'd like to have a little chat with her... if she really is that woman, of course.

There's information that only she knows that would be indispensable to the Organization, you must understand.

Ah... then that makes quite a bit more sense.

[ She picks up the piece of the girl... revolves it in her hands a little bit, eying it with a very small, unreadable smile. Though the piece was that of Maria, she very clearly saw her target. ]

I want you to know I have more than enough information to break this girl, identity or not. That's a witch's promise. Too many other pieces she'd sacrifice herself on the board to protect, but I'm not going to underestimate a target. That's what fools do in their games. Control is only established at the end.

I really do despise the rising phoenix types. [ She sets it back down again. ] But they have the tendency to crop up.

[He continued to smile.] Good.

An immortal bird, reborn from its own ashes... what sort of person would that be?

The kind of person who occupied the king's piece.

However, he was a fool, and I took his game from right beneath his feet.

Oh?

[He took the cigarette from his teeth and flicked ashes off to his side, to avoid burning his clothes or the table in front of him.]

First, he denied magic.

Then, he became a sorcerer to protect his morals, while still not believing in magic.

Then he trapped himself in a logic error, but eventually got out and killed one of my pieces...

But his playing was so terrible that the game was handed to me despite all that.

Trapped himself in a logic error... do you mean that figuratively or literally?

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a second miracle

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[... conversations with Gin can get one-sided very, very quickly? ^o^;]

[HAHA it's okay. Bern doesn't talk much either. ]

[x3; ... I need to get Gin more icons, I'm so picky about them. xDD; ]

[I can totally understand ;o;]

[Particularly awful if you're picky and want the icons JUST RIGHT before you post anything. xD;;]

[I spend like five minutes picking an icon for a tag. I'm like that too ;w;]

[And when I don't find it, I'll go and scour icon communities! I could take ages searching! xD;;;]

[HAHAHA i usually just give up and make my own when i get that far]

[Hah, as do I, but it's difficult when you play a character with short or difficult to find canon~]

[that is very true ;w;]

[Our sad fate. ^^;]