Crescent Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Remedy ❯ Predictions ( Chapter 1 )

I can't not type this up, so, even though I've got Phases going, I'm going to start a new fanfic. I was going to save this for after I was done, but then I realized how that wasn't going to happen. If I don't post it now, it'll never get posted.

This was first written between midnight and 1 a.m. this morning. Bare with me.

Summary: AU. Nothing interesting ever happened, even at a carnival filled with freaks. That is, until he came along.

Disclaimer: I think I got the idea for this when thinking about The Wolfman. Either way, I don't own any of the characters that you recognize. Which will probably be all of them. Good for you.

Pairings: This will mostly focus on Keiko/Akira, but, as always, I shall make sure to add in tiny bits of Mitsuru/Mahiru.

Eheu! There is no title!

Chapter 1: Predictions

`KEIKO HIMURA' was not what the sign said on her small yet comfortable caravan. Neither did it say `FREAK' or `WITCH' (though either would've been fine.)

`PSYCHIC' is what it said, clear as day for anyone with half-a-brain or less to come in and get less than their money's worth of a fortune.

It wasn't that she wasn't a psychic; that part was true. But everyone expected her to look at a person and tell them their future (“Next! Ten dollars in the pot. Let's see now…” followed by lots of hmm-ing and “Oh my”s.) But there was more to it than that. She was lucky if she got a flash of someone's future when she was conscious.

It was mostly girls with their pretty boyfriends. They asked for love fortunes, waiting with eager faces. More often than not she told them they'd have twenty-three-and-a-half children together. (The men would leave looking terrified while the girls clapped their hands in glee.)

Keiko had found herself bored. She could hang out with demon-summoners, chant with real witches, party with the best of the freaks, and speak to the dead, and she was bored.

Of course, there was Hokuto.

He owned the whole damn thing and it ran perfectly. She wouldn't have minded him if it weren't for the fact that he was obsessed with her. When he wasn't fixing problems he was making her life worse. Often she got angry with him. One time, he asked for a fortune (with that sly little grin and that knowing voice guys use to get you into bed with them) and she told him she saw him spending a long time in hell. He hadn't backed off.

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It was her off-time when he first came. She'd never worn the whole gypsy outfit, but she always wore flowing skirts and hippie-ish shirts to go with them (if you didn't look somewhat hippie-ish, they didn't believe you.) Right before she left her caravan (switching the sign to `OUT' and locking the door) she would pull on a pair of jeans to wear under the skirt, making it slightly more bearable.

She was over by Jack's, the man who could pull anything out of everything and performed the most believable magic tricks, buying cotton candy when he showed up. She sensed him first, a jovial spirit with an optimistic outlook, overshadowed by something dark. When she turned to see who stood out so prominently in the crowd, she noticed him immediately.

Scruffy brown hair with an enthused look. His eyes were downcast worry, but you could tell he was happy to be there. He had a pretty young blond girl in tow. She seemed determined and equally worried, yet equally happy.

Keiko had no idea why, but she was entranced by the stranger. So she did what she'd never done before.

Keiko Himura, the woman who disdains everything, especially romance in any kind of setting, was going to hit on a guy.

The blond hardly noticed her as she walked up. She whispered something to the boy and ran off in another direction.

Keiko stood in front of the man, a hand on her hip, her expression more smirk than smile, and said, “Want your fortune told?”

The man stopped and gave her a startled look. “I don't…”

She then did another first: she spoke (of her own free will) in gypsy talk.

“You interest me,” she said, keeping her eyes level with his, “I'll do it for free.”

He still seemed a bit anxious. “I really shouldn't…”

“It'll take five minutes, tops,” she said, “Don't you want to know what your future holds?”

The one thing that no one could resist. The only reason people paid good money for face fortunes. They many not know what's in store for them (the scariest thing ever when pointed out), but she did.

“I guess… five minutes couldn't hurt.”

She smiled and motioned for him to follow. They weaved through the crowd until they reached her caravan. She unlocked the door and led him inside, pleased with how his eyes lit up when he noticed the many clichéd fortune-teller items.

“Don't be fooled,” she said, motioning her hands over various objects. “Half of them are fake. No one believes you unless you have a crystal ball, a potion's wall, and three sets of tarot cards.” She sat down in the overstuffed chair she used for fortune reading. “Give me your hand.”

He held it out timidly, as if afraid she might hurt him. “Does that really work?” he asked.

“There's a science behind it, but I mostly do it for show. By the way, I never caught your name.”

“Akira Yamabuki. I thought you were supposed to be psychic.”

“I am. It's a common misconception that psychics know everything. But I do know you travel with a pretty blond woman.”

“How'd you know?”

“She ran off before I could meet the lovely lade. Are you two a couple or am I being nosy?”

He smiled. “I should learn your name before you get to know about my personal life.”

“Keiko Himura.” She released his wrist and looked up at him. “Your love life looks good, you'll live long, and whatever that last thing was…”

“I think its wealth.”

“…Oh yeah. That's not looking so good.”

“How long is the circus in town?”

“We're here for another five days before we move onto the next town. We'll be back in about three-to-six months. A year at the most.”

“I'll have to bring Mahiru by before you're gone.”

“Mahiru?”

“The pretty blond girl. And, no, we're not a couple. See ya around, Keiko.”

She watched him leave. Casually, she went outside to let the world know her cotton candy break had been interrupted and she was back for exploitation.

Though… Maybe being a psychic wasn't all bad.

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