Knight of Brass Balls

For most people, a Saturday was the day on which their weekend had begun and it was usually spent on activities which were inaccessible during the workweek. However, that was not the case for Ichiro. Every Saturday he found himself being stuck in his cafe, working as hard as he could. It was the day when the number of customers was on their peek and in order to maintain stability, everyone had to work on that day. The amount of staff which this cafe employed was rather limited and he, the owner, often found himself working most of the days in the week. Funnily enough, the special characteristics of this establishment made it impossible for normal humans to see or even notice it and yet, the amount of customers was somehow increasing with each passing day. Some might say that Ichiro's famous coffee was the reason for that, most of the everyday customers were here because of their adoration towards it. However, most people would point out towards the more obvious reason. 

The amount of spiritually aware individuals was increasing. One way or the other, Karakura was slowly becoming the nesting grounds for people with spiritual powers. The recent Hollow attacks and invasions were probably responsible for that and it was only a matter of time before it all became public. The government, with some involvement from the Quincy and spiritualist organizations, was keeping tabs on everything and was doing their best to cover it all up. But, there was so little that they could do to prevent occasional leaks that would appear here and there. The pandemic was not going to stop, it was going to spreading faster than ever before. 

However, none of that actually bothered Ichiro, his troubles were of a much lesser scale than that. The supplies were being used up rather quickly and so, he found himself visiting the stash for the third time today. He had to leave his position for just a moment, hoping that nobody would order anything while he was away. After all, it only took him a couple of minutes to go to the stash, take the ingredients that he needed and come back. Most of the time, just like now, they had a lack of coffee beans as coffee was, naturally, their most prominent product. They excelled in it, everyone loved it. It was no surprise that the older Quincy would be doing this restocking process almost mechanically, he didn't even have to think about what he was doing.

Due to that, someone ringing the bell naturally came off as a surprise to Ichiro. Usually he was lucky enough to dodge situations like this since, most of the time, he would enter the stash upon making sure that all of the current customers are taken care of. He would rarely be bothered while doing the restocking. Today was different apparently. As quickly as he could, he would grab a bag of coffee beans and head towards the bar, passing through the empty staff room on his way. After a few turns, he would open the door and find himself spotting a tall man in a military uniform standing by the bell. 

"Hello Sir, how can I help you?" He would politely ask, throwing a gentle smile while he was at it. From the looks of it, this man was a Quincy, the feel he was giving off was enough for Ichiro to deduct that even without having to use much of his spiritual senses. Quincy were usually rare customers and even in the staff of the cafe, only Ichiro and one more person belonged to them. Having abandoned his rank, position and all other ties to the Quincy a while ago, the sudden appearance of this man made the bartender get a bit suspicious. He was not sure why this man was here, hopefully it was because of the coffee. But, that was probably not the case. 


658 [658]
Tags: Lucas Lightner

Wait a minute, Lucas took pause when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He knew what he saw, in that moment, but didn’t—refused—to believe it. After all, when he looked around, he saw a normal café with light-brown, wooden chairs, a dark-oak counter, red carpet, and one other thing.

Very pretty girls in French maid outfits.

This wasn’t supposed to be like this. Maid cafés in Japan were absurd, silly, over-the-top things where overly cutesy girls served a very sexually hopeless section of the population, for the most part. Creepy men who wanted to be meowed at by women and called ‘master’, all for a few bucks and over tea. They weren’t supposed to be in a place like this, and certainly not blonde, like the one a few tables away, wiping it off.

Japanese girls weren’t blonde. Was she wearing a wig, too?

Before Lucas had a chance to gawk in surprise any further, the owner strode right up to the counter and, in weak English, asked Lucas if there was anything he could do for him. Lucas just cleared his throat and smiled, convinced that he had come across the Quincy he was looking for. But, just to be sure, Lucas reached out with his mind and risked running head-first into the man’s far-superior spiritual pressure.

When he did, he found the three pressures he expected. Luna’s, a weaker one behind him as well—one of the wait staff?—and the one in front of him. Of course, what he didn’t expect was that the one in front of him was completely and utterly normal. His spiritual pressure was equal to the average, mundane human. Lucas couldn’t even be sure that the man was capable of seeing ghosts or other, spiritual phenomenon.

“Uh,” he stuttered and stuck his hand back into the pocket with his compass, withdrawing it. “Excuse me just a moment.”

When he looked down, he saw what he expected. Two particles behind the center, where Luna and the other were. One in front of him, but it wasn’t the large presence he had seen when he last looked. This one was the smallest Quincy reading he had ever laid eyes on, one so small that it shouldn’t even, really, be possible.

But there it was, decidedly Quincy, right in front of his eyes.

Lucas looked back to the man.

“My name is Lucas Lighter,” he introduced himself, his voice a bit unsteady while he pocketed the compass again. He offered his hand a moment later. “And I’m here on behalf of the Queen of the Order of the Quincy, as a Knight. I have much to tell you, and the other Quincy in your employ, about what’s going on—and I think you’ll like the news.”

This struck Lucas as, simply, too weird. He had to know.

“But if you don’t mind,” he cut in before the man could answer. “I’d like to ask you about what, exactly, happened. Not to be rude, but no Quincy should have a Spiritual Pressure as small as your own. It’s not natural.”

*****

522 Words

With a baffled expression, Ichiro would stare at the man in front of him as he took out a compass and then proceeded to look at it for some reason. Blinking a few times in a quick succession, he would confusedly lean in a bit over the counter and glance at the man's compass, trying to deduct what was so interesting about it. However, no matter how hard he tried to, he just couldn't tell what was it about. This was most certainly the first time ever that he had seen a customer like this. Leaning back a bit, he would return to his previous position, realizing that he was not gonna be able to deduct on own. Instead, it was better to just wait for the other male to be done with whatever that he was doing, hoping that he would be done soon as just standing there and doing nothing was not something he loved doing on a busy day. 

Thankfully, Ichiro was in luck this time. After a few moments, the other male was finally done with his compass and was now once more looking at him. Not sure what to expect from this person, the bartender would patiently stand there, letting him do his introduction. The smile that he had thrown up remained on his face even after everything that he had witnessed. From the looks of it, the man in front of him was here on official business. The military uniform was a bit of a giveaway and Ichiro did have some doubts about him. However, what came as a surprise to him was hearing the name of the organization and the fact that there was apparently a Quincy Queen. Having been out of the loop for a while now, last time this Quincy heard anything about the Royalty was during the time when a man named Markus was the one sitting at the throne after managing to steal the crown from Weylin. This sudden mention of a Quincy Queen was a bit of a shock. Did Markus abdicate the throne or was it actually taken from him? There was a lot to learn from this man and apparently that was why he was here, to spread the news. 

Keeping his reaction unchanged, Ichiro would continue as he was up until the point when he was asked a question. He was not given time to even respond to the grand news and instead, this man wanted to know why his spiritual pressure was so low. Being asked that, he took it weirdly. He would open his mouth and just as his lips were about to move to form words, his mouth would close up and no words could be heard. This would repeat a few times until he simply stopped trying. For a moment, an eerie silence would ensue and Ichiro would remain perfectly still. The experience which he had gone through when he had lost his powers was something he had a hard time talking about. It was quite personal and trying to remove the parts which he did not wish to mention was difficult. Forming an explanation for this man to comprehend without those parts wouldn't quite make sense. Even then, he wasn't sure if he himself understood the whole thing either. It was most certainly unique. 

However, leaving it like this simply didn't feel right. He had to say something. Raising his hand, he would scratch his head and as he did, words would finally find their way out of his mouth: "Let's just say I went through a process of forcefully removing my Sanrei and that resulted badly. It's not really a fun story to talk about, trust me on this." Trying to keep his words hidden from his customers and his staff, Ichiro would make sure he spoke a bit more quietly than usual. He would momentarily pause before continuing by adding: "We'd be better of taking this somewhere a bit more private. I have a staff room in the back so, if you'd like, we could have this little conversation there. I'll have someone take over for me and I'll get us some coffee, on the house of course." 

700 [1358]

A strange as it was, Lucas wanted to know, right away, what happened to this man. It wasn’t just because it was an oddity, but because Lucas heard about this in the past, from his father. It was the single thing his father had warned could happen to a Quincy, but would never tell him how. All he said was, if that time ever came, to return home immediately, no matter what it took, no matter what else was going on. If Lucas listened to nothing else his father ever said, his father made it clear that this message needed to be the one thing he did heed.

Even despite his tight-lipped attitude on the subject, his father shared that it was more than Quincy Spiritual Pressure dropping to the level of a mundane human. He explained that, along with it, you would lose all of your supernatural awareness and abilities. Although it might manifest slightly differently from Quincy to Quincy, the end result was the same: You might as well not be a Quincy anymore.

When Lucas asked his question, and his eyes burned with a desire to learn more, he never honestly expected an answer out of this man. Lucas just met him mere moments ago and immediately opened with a pretty serious question. Lucas counted himself lucky if he and Luna didn’t simply get kicked out right away.

Instead, he got an answer.

It happened because of the forcible removal of his Sanrei Device.

Just like the loss of Quincy powers, Lucas learned of the Sanrei Devices from his father. He had been told that, ‘when the time came’, there would be one waiting for him as well. They hadn’t spoken about it in over ten years, and the memory still hung in Lucas’ mind. All this time and he had never once really considered asking his father for the Sanrei Device, or what could possibly make him know when the time was right to get it.

Yet, here, on the other side of the planet, it all came back up again. It was even connected to the mysterious loss of Quincy powers, no less.

“Yes,” Lucas answered with a nod of his head. “I think the staff room might be a good call. And, thank you; your answer did me more of a favor than you realize.”

Tehre would be time for that explanation a little later, Lucas decided.

Following the man’s lead—he still hadn’t introduced himself—Lucas pushed through the hinged, low door built into the counter. Another young man came up from the back when called and started to man the counter as Lucas and his new acquaintance turned a corner into the staff room.

Just like he said he would, or what Lucas thought he said given his tenuous grasp on Japanese, the owner started on some coffee using a machine in the room.

“I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me,” Lucas went on as the man worked. He stood next to the door and waited—he wanted to avoid being even more rude to the man by taking a seat first. “I know my question was sudden, the compass I had probably seemed weird as well, and that my abrupt appearance in your café is out of the norm for you, but I want to assure you: There’s a good reason for it all.”

The best reason, as far as Lucas concerned himself.

*****

575 Words

Leading the way, Ichiro would once more open the door from which he came out just a few moments ago, taking the other male into an area hidden from the other customers. At the beginning of a rather long corridor, a western-style oak door lead into a small room. Right from the start, the lack of decoration and the simplicity of everything inside was quite evident. Large closets were stacked right next to the walls, filled with staff clothes and spare uniforms. In the middle of the room, a single wooden table with chairs stood and at the end of it, there was a couch and a rather small table, with a coffee machine, right next to it. The older male would go in first, opening the door and starting on the coffee right away. He would prepare the ingredients while the other male spoke and once it was all ready, he'd let it do its thing while turning his attention and gaze towards the other male. 

"Yes, you could say that, I don't often see Quincy in uniforms such as yours in these parts. It's one of the reasons I came here to begin with." Or, well, ran away? But, he couldn't say that, could he? It would be safe to assume that this Lucas fellow did not know much about the particularity of his situation and Ichiro wanted it to stay that way. He knew that one day someone would find him here and that he was just avoiding the inevitable. But, he took his chance, he wanted to be alone at least for a little bit. Having his peace and doing what he wanted, being free of the curse that his bloodline carried, oh how he desired that. He did waste forty two years of his life for the Quincy, wasn't he allowed a bit of a break? It was a selfish thought and yet, a pleasant one. However, even though he knew so little, this Lucas person was going to bring what he had here to an end. Just his appearance here was enough to ruin everything. If one man could find him here then, others should follow soon as well. 

With a bit of a frown slowly replacing the gentle smile he had, the older male would continue: "If I may ask, what happened to Marcus? You mentioned a Queen so I am wondering what happened to the former King? He didn't seem like the person who'd give up on his throne quite so easily. This Queen must be quite an interesting individual to have made him surrender it. Did the mighty castle suffer any damage to it?" The struggles of the monarchy were something Ichiro never bothered with, especially every since the humiliation of Weylin, the man he considered to be the king which the Quincy needed. However, sometimes he did find it interesting to hear about the changes which occur every time a new ruler takes the throne. Apparently this Queen liked having an Order to serve her and this man was a part of it. They probably had fancy ranks and everything. 

Either way, after hearing a 'click', Ichiro would turn around for a moment, taking out the glass pot and pouring the coffee into a single coup. He would then signal to the other male to come and sit down. Having his guest stand at the doorway just didn't feel right and he could tell that the other male was simply trying to avoid being rude. Once Lucas would pick his seat, Ichiro would put the coffee in front of him and then he would sit at the chair next to him, closely listening to what the other male had to say.

621 [1979]

Avoiding Quincy? Lucas noted the obvious implication behind the man’s words. It was one thing that he had used Letzt Stil and, in doing so, lost his spiritual awareness and his above-average Spiritual Pressure. But to find out that he was, after that, also avoiding Quincy altogether? That was something else entirely, and it hid a story that Lucas very much wanted to hear. But, he had already pushed things a little too far. He’d have to take his time to get to the bottom of that mystery.

Luckily, Ichiro himself didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry. Caught off guard? Sure. His gait, his tone, his words, they all gave that away, at least in Lucas’ opinion. In fact, after a frown, his generous host had some questions of his own: About Marcus, about the castle, about who the new Queen was. Just like Lucas had started to put together, it became clear that this man was a Quincy for a quite a while and had been involved in Quincy activities across the globe until pretty recently.

Which meant that whatever happened to him, happened relatively recently.

“Apparently, that’s a bit of a long story,” Lucas answered with a nod of the head. “I still don’t know all of the details, but what I do know is this: Despite some dirty tactics, Marcus Hohenfel lost the crown to Weylin von Wolfenstein. Weylin then passed it on to Cressida Schade after being appropriately challenged, who then surrendered it to the more powerful Freyleif Jökulsdóttir. It’s been a bit of a case of musical chairs.”

What were the chances that a Japanese café owner knew what musical chairs were? Lucas brushed off that too-late realization and pushed forward, “Which is what brings us to today. The Queen has given me the status of a Knight in her new Order of the Quincy. I’m sent to offer any Quincy I can find a chance to join us. If anyone’s not interested, though, we just leave them alone—so don’t get the wrong idea!”

Naturally, Lucas couldn’t help but chuckle at those last few words. How many Quincy had he met already that thought he was going to try to get them to submit by force? Not only would that have been a terrible thing to do, but it simply wouldn’t work. You couldn’t win hearts and minds by beating them down until they beg for mercy, the human spirit wasn’t so easy to truly sway. At best, you’d get begrudging obedience.

His Queen, and he himself, didn’t just want obedience. That’s not how you built a real, sustainable organization of Quincy. They had to want it, and that meant that Lucas had to sell it.

After that, Lucas took a few steps forward from the door to join the man in the room. When he glanced at the chairs, a silent invitation, Lucas took him up on it and made himself comfortable with a quiet, “Thank you.”

Which left them with a lot of history on the proverbial table, but nothing of the future.

“That’s what brings me to you,” Lucas went on. “That said, it’s pretty clear you’ve chosen what you want your involvement with the Quincy to be. However, if you’ll entertain me, I’d like to talk to you about all of this before you make your final decision. A lot has changed, after all. But, to start, I was wondering if I could get your name?”

*****

582 Words

“Freyleif-chan is the new Queen?” The older male would suddenly utter, quite loudly, almost till the point where the customers outside could hear him. With his hand shaking a little bit from this unexpected news, he would lover the coup of coffee which had just picked up in order to take a bit of a sip. Perhaps coffee was not suited for this meeting, at least based on the direction of where things were going. Something alcoholic would have been way better, you know, to calm the nerves and such. There were plenty of news in that single statement that would have made Ichiro react in a similar manner but, hearing about that young girl taking over the throne certainly did take the cake when it came to impact. It was definitely not something he had expected.

The next few words included something about some sort of an order but, they went somewhat unnoticed as Ichiro was still shocked from the initial batch that he just couldn’t focus on paying attention. He caught glimpses of it but it was nothing too important or of any concern to him. The Quincy organizations were clearly something that he was not willing to take part in, him being here was a clear proof of that. However, the news about Freyleif did made his mind waver a bit. This was the girl who helped him out in a time of need and he owed a lot to her, he couldn’t just ignore that fact.

Getting back to his senses, he would hear out Lucas till the end, making that realization as soon as the other male asked about his name. “Ah yes, how rude of me, I completely forgot to introduce myself. It’s, Ichiro! I am really sorry about that.” Extending his arm towards Lucas, he would initiate a traditionally western greeting, the handshake. It might have been a bit too late for that but, better late than never. Outside influence had taught him that western people sometimes tended to get offended if one did not shake their hand during a formal introduction. He wasn’t sure as to how much of that was true but, he did not want to risk it.

However, one thing Ichiro did purposefully leave out was his last name. One thing he didn’t want anyone to tie him to was his family, especially after everything that happened with the whole Weylin versus Markus thing. For now, he wanted for Lucas to meet him as who he was and not as who he was related to as that would most certainly change quite a few things. There was always the chance that Lucas didn’t know anything about the deeds of his family but, it was not something he was willing to risk. This is why, for the longest time, he had been using a false last name to evade being tied to the Tsubaki family. Since this place was away from all of that and Quincy were a rarity, he was free to introduce himself as Ichiro Tsubaki. But, this man was most certainly not like the rest of his customers.

Threading carefully but, at the same time, not showing it, he would continue with his usual cheerful attitude and a colorful smile. “So, knowing about my stand, what is it that you can say to me to make me change my opinion? How much do you know about me?”

570 [2549]