Chess Pieces (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

"I'm here to see Kousei."

Manako had jumped from her seat as soon as the foreigner had come through the front door to the office as if he owned the place. She'd opened her mouth to tell him that he couldn't just waltz in here, but he'd spoken before she could get so much as a squeak out. She couldn't help but think he'd only stopped because it had suited his purpose. She closed her mouth and quickly ran to the other side of her desk, positioning herself between the man and Kousei's door, taking in his appearance and all possibilities contained within as she moved.

He had a darker complexion. Not black by any stretch of the imagination, but not white or Asian either. She was pretty sure she'd met some middle-eastern businessman with the skin tone. He had a wide vivid blue robe that seemed to be made out of an incredibly fine but equally sturdy fabric. Around his neck was a long yellow scarf of a shade to well compliment the vivid blue of his robe.

Around the top of his head was a turban the same shade as his robe, although the man didn't use it to hold up his black hair, which spilled about an inch past his shoulders. It seemed carefully arranged to her though, so that the entire left side of the man's face was completely concealed by the hair, including that half of his well groomed beard and connected mustache. Those were the obvious details of his appearance, and other than not matching anyone she had ever seen, were of no concern to Manako.

What concerned her was his stance. The smooth arrogance and confidence that he had complete mastery of the situation reminded her a bit much of Kousei when he removed his public mask. Even the cruel lack of mercy lurked just beneath the surface of it. The way he stared out of that one visible blue eye, traced at the bottom in black and with a line jutting downwards at a sharp angle towards his cheekbone before coming back in with a point, set her on edge. But she didn't run as she wanted to, and nearly returned the gaze with a narrow one of her own

"Hikaru-san," Manako said, emphasizing the man's rude usage of Kousei's given name and lack of honorific, "Is not expecting you. You can not simply barge into his office, you need an appointment, and I am afraid to say he is quite booked."

"You don't want me to make you move," the man spoke as if he were addressing a fly. He pulled back a bit, not out of any illussion of backing down, but as if to give her space, "Although I suppose it may go better if you announced me first."

He waved his arm as if dismissing a servant, "Go then, and tell him that Aswad... ah, I suppose in Japanese it would be Ali Aswad needs to speak to him. I'll give you five minutes before I assume you've failed."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

A meeting had been arranged between Kousei and Atsuro. The time it had taken for Kousei to call back had both been necessary and strategic. There had still been all sorts of red tape in regards to Bakura's imprisonment. Getting Atsuro to him for the talk before the trial was proving to be harder than he thought. He'd still manage it in the end, though.

He heard someone walk into the office and call him by his first name. Well, this wasn't acceptable at all. He watched the scene through a screen on his desk. He didn't know any Arabic men, and he was quite good at remembering faces. This man's manner told Kousei he was just as arrogant as himself.

Kousei didn't wait for Manako to call him. Instead, he walked to the door and pulled it open. "That won't be necessary. Please, come in, Ali-san. Though I would prefer if we made this quick; I do have other appointments."

[mugenginga]

Manako caught the curl of a smile on the foreign man's lips half a beat before she heard the door opening. Her eyes widened and she jerked her head back. It seemed as if she'd wanted to jerk her whole body around, but didn't want to turn her back on the visitor. She paled a bit as Kousei appeared in the doorway and gave a quick nod, scurrying back to her desk without a word of objection. Aswad raised an eyebrow at it, and stared at her for a solid few seconds before he smirked and turned to Kousei.

"I think you'll be more interested in it than you realize," Aswad said, his manner of speaking implying nothing so uncertain as "think". He walked past Kousei and sat down at the chair in front of his desk. He didn't turn back towards Kousei as he spoke, "One of your clients has... or I suppose the case is now had?... something of mine."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei sat down in his own chair and clasped his hands in front of him. The man before him avoided looking toward him, but Kousei didn't get the sense it was because he was intimidated. No, this man wouldn't be intimidated easily. He was too confident for that.

"I'm well aware of the item in question," Kousei stated. "What I'm wondering about is why you are coming to me now, on the eve of my client's trial, asking about it."

He tapped a pen against the table. "It's not in my client's hands anymore, so it's not my concern, Ali-san."

[mugenginga]

Aswad's attention hadn't shifted when Kousei sat down, and he looked the man straight in the eyes as the lawyer spoke. Aswad smiled and leaned back further in his chair, crossing his arms as Kousei picked up a pen and began to tap it. The man was impatient, it seemed.

"You and I both know that's a lie, Kousei," Aswad said. Not a single thing about his mannerisms had changed, "As I understand it, the Item in question has found its way into a young man named Atem. Who I know for a fact to be friends with your client."

He leaned forward, a smile crossing his face and a glint in his eyes, "You have a bit of a reputation for taking whatever means necessary to free your client. That boy does me no good locked behind bars."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei placed the pen down on the table. Aswad remained confident as he talked, fitting his mannerisms so far. Kousei chuckled and leaned back in his chair.

"Why bother coming to speak with me then? If I am as you say, then I'd have my client out of jail regardless," Kousei said with a smirk.

He chuckled. "And if you wish for my client to steal the Item himself, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to shoot that down. It doesn't do well for my reputation if my clients go straight back to jail after I get them out in the first place. But that's not why you're here, is it?"

I wonder if he's an associate of Kihara's or Adachi's. Adachi certainly has some plans of his own... I need to look into this man once he leaves, as well. Ali Aswad... that's a pseudonym if I ever heard one.

[mugenginga]

Aswad's grin didn't change at first. He leaned back in his chair and brushed at the hair hanging down in front of his face. Kousei's observational skills would very likely catch a quick glint of gold under there, somewhere around his eye, but the movement was fast enough he wouldn't be able to focus on it before the black hair was concealing that side of the face again. Aswad adjusted his hair under his turban, quite aware Kousei would pick up on that it wasn't just a casual gesture.

"You won't be able to find any information on me no matter how hard you look, Kousei. You could say I don't exist," he smiled at that, matching Kousei's own expression. Both men seemed to be convinced they had the control of the situation, "Now, as for my reason for being here... I know the boy you have locked up on a rather... personal level, if you will. Now you're a smart enough man to know there's more to him than there seems, but he'll be quite willing to get himself thrown in a maximum security prison just to avoid being your puppet."

"Has he informed you of his goals? I don't suppose it matters much. You see, Kousei, he and I are somewhat aligned on this point. I'm quite capable of making sure you lose your little case, as well as your upstanding reputation, if you're not willing to help me with getting that Item back in my possession."

His grin was more or less sadistic as it spread to the corners of his face, "I suspect you're unaware that there are seven?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

...did my expression give me away? His observations are too similar to my thoughts for that to be a coincidence. Perhaps he simply knows my type of person too well.

Kousei's thoughts didn't dwell on the glint of gold he'd seen when Aswad moved his hair. He could assume based on Aswad's statements what it was, though, though he didn't understand it. The implications were that it was one of the Items Aswad mentioned. The pendant Atem wore was made of gold as well, so it fit.

"So you wish to blackmail me into aiding you in some kind of mass heist? Or is it more that you wish to reinforce the idea that Bakura-san needs to win his case?" He shuffled some papers. "You say 'that Item', but you expect me to aid you in retrieving all seven, whether it be directly or indirectly."

He placed the papers in a drawer in his desk. Without looking up, he continued. "I'll have to refuse. It would be incredibly inconvenient for me to end up in jail, particularly if I were to lose my license. In fact, a single loss would do well to further my own aims."

It would certainly get the police off of my back.

[mugenginga]

Aswad's grin widened a bit as Kousei began to shuffle the papers, seemingly in response to his thinking out loud. He hooked his fingers through each other and brought them into a fist on top of the front of Kousei's desk, only his pointer fingers facing up. He was leaning forward to do this. He was grinning like a cat who had found a mouse in a trap.

"You know I've wondering about your reputation for a while, Kousei. What could you have done to have the police watching your every move so closely?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

((OOC: RPING KOUSEI IS SUFFERING))

Again?! Just as I'm thinking about it... he isn't guessing this. No, this is something more... That mass murderer case a little while back didn't help my chances any either.

Kousei gave Aswad a stare, and then lightly pushed on his forehead to move him back. "Please don't lean so far over my desk. It's very rude, Ali-san."

He clasped his fingers together and stared Aswad in the face, his expression completely emotionless. Despite that, his surface thoughts suddenly took a very drastic turn.

...I don't like this. Is he going to attack me? What if he goes after my family?

"I don't think my involvement with the police is any concern to my clients."

[mugenginga]

Aswad let himself be pushed back, but it was in a manner that proved that it was due to his own decision, not Kousei's wishes. He took his hands off the table and spread them in an elaborate shrug as he leaned back. He brought the finger tip of his pointer finger on his left had up to his hair, moving in a way that he could twist it. His left eye remained concealed due to the small amount of hair and only slight amount of pulling he did, however.

"I suppose I can hand you that much, and I'm willing to let that much slide as well. It isn't as if I couldn't find out if I was that interested," he pulled down firmly on the bit of hair he had gathered, and gave a smaller grin than his previous ones towards Kousei with his finger still. Smaller grin, crueller look, "But I'm going to get those Items back, and you are going to help me."

He removed his hand from his hair and lifted his hand to look at his fingernails, "In this day and age, ten's old enough to know what's going on when it comes to certain types of... assault, wouldn't you agree, Kousei? And no three year old needs to find out the boogeyman is real, wouldn't you say?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

And that confirms it.

"I don't have any children, Ali-san," Kousei said, his flat expression becoming a smirk. "I never married. In fact, by saying that, you confirmed that somehow, in some way, you're reading my thoughts. Surface thoughts, anyways, since you weren't able to look past the fact that I was concentrating only on a non-extant family."

He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. "While I'm not the type to believe in psychic powers, your words were direct responses to my own thoughts not once, but twice. It was worth a test."

He tapped a pen against the desk impatiently. "I don't have the patience for men who try to blackmail me into following their orders. I'm going to respectfully ask you to leave my office, Ali-san."

[mugenginga]

And Kousei earned his first major strike, the reward present by the way Aswad's smug smile became a terse frown. That hadn't gone as expected, and he wasn't quite sure why. Was his recovery less complete than he'd given it credit for. He stared at Kousei for a few moments, his frown remaining. Then the smirk returned and he shrugged.

"Impressive for a human, I'll give you that much. Perhaps I've spent enough time dealing with teenagers and their petty ideas of importance that my skills have rusted a bit. But you really don't seem to understand the boat you're in Kousei. You've played your trump card, and I'm now aware of your attempts to dodge. Beyond that, I really did mean it when I threatened to bring your cases to light."

"It may not be the best thing for "Ryou's" record to get sent to prison, but I'm not going to allow you to use my puppet to your own gains," his smirk widened, "So let's try this again. Either you help me in my goals, or I bring your entire shady case history crashing down around your head."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

He called him a human, which implied certain things in the way this man thought about himself. Either this man wasn't what he seemed to be (likely, with this damn island) or he was delusional. Hadn't Bakura been convinced he was some kind of Egyptian thief? Perhaps there was a cult centered around these items.

There was still the issue of his case history hanging over his head. He really did like having a license. It helped pay the bills. He needed that money and influence in order to actually survive. Still, Aswad hadn't given him any proof he could do as he said. There was still the likely tactic of intimidation.

"And what would these goals happen to be?" Kousei stated, his voice lacking much of its usual amusement. "And if I'm to be forced into working for some shadowy foreigner, it would be nice to know who he actually is."

------------------

The front door to the office opened with a jingle, and Atsuro stepped in. He looked toward Manako reluctantly.

"I'm here for my... appointment?"

He looked toward the door. He could hear voices through there. Kousei must not have finished whatever other appointments he had beforehand after all.

[mugenginga]

Aswad's previous self confidence returned as Kousei spoke again. However, it would be evident he was watching the man more closely now. He lifed his hand towards his hair for a moment, before giving a very slight shrug seemingly to himself and dropping it.

"Goals? I simply want the Items that are rightfully mine returned to me. If you want to keep 'Ryou' from committing further crimes after your "assured" dismissal of his charges, you might want to look into handling his issues yourself. I'm sure a man as smart as you can figure them out without him having to tell you, he was never exactly subtle. Really, you could say he's been pursuing his goals for about as long as I've been pursuing this one of mine. As for who I actually am..." Aswad smiled, "I am Ali Aswad, the man without a face. That's really all you need to know, and perhaps all your mind could hope to handle."

"Don't worry about keeping in touch, I'll contact you. I'd say we're done here, then?" It was a statement, not a question. Aswad rose to his feet, turning his head towards the door at the sound of a jingle. A deeper and far more self amused smile twitched at the edges of his lips as the new arrival spoke. He turned back towards Kousei, "Don't let that one go, he's skilled in areas you'd find useful."

----------

Manako was frowning at her computer screen when the office door jingled open, seemingly unaware of Atsuro's presence. She looked up with a start as he came in, and a series of key strokes caused her to switch user accounts and send the computer into hibernation. No information on the man who was with Kousei, but she doubted Kousei would be any more suprised than she was - likely less. She gave a sympathetic smile towads Atsuro and gestured towards a chair in the front office.

"He had a meeting run over, Kihara-san. Please take a seat and he'll be with you as soon as he can," the lie was delivered flawlessly.