The stench of rice wine and cheap tobacco clung to Tanzaku Town like a second roof. Dice rattled across wooden tables, coins clinked in nervous palms, and laughter tried too hard to sound like victory.
Lelouch stepped inside and let the noise wash over him.
To most, the hall was chaos. To him, it was a board. Every gambler was a piece: pawns shaking with desperation, rooks leaning against walls with folded arms, queens hiding behind laughter. He read them all in a glance — tells betrayed by trembling hands, debts betrayed by furtive glances at the door, hope betrayed by too-smooth smiles.
But his eyes settled on one table.
Tsunade sat hunched forward, golden hair spilling around a face too beautiful to be dulled by drink. Her hand gripped dice with the ease of habit, her eyes hooded, lips twisting when fortune mocked her again. A tower of empty bottles guarded her left. At her side, the pale apprentice — Shizune — tried in vain to moderate her master's spiral.
Lelouch did not need an introduction. The resemblance to the First Hokage was faint but unmistakable. The weight in her shoulders spoke louder than bloodline: a queen who had abdicated her throne long before anyone offered it.
He crossed the floor without hurry and sat opposite her.
The dealer glanced at him, uncertain. Tsunade didn't even look up. "Another fool who thinks he can beat me? Sit. Lose. Leave."
Lelouch's lips curved faintly. "I'm not here to gamble."
That earned him a glance — sharp, annoyed, dangerous. "Then get out of my seat."
"I'm here," Lelouch continued calmly, "to remind you that gambling is only exciting when you believe in winning. You don't. You throw dice because losing is familiar. Safer."
The dice in her hand froze. Shizune stiffened.
For a heartbeat, Tsunade's eyes burned — then she laughed, low and bitter. "Smooth tongue. You sound like every schemer who's ever tried to drag me back to Konoha. Danzo would like you."
"I don't know about Danzo." Lelouch said softly. He leaned forward, violet eyes gleaming. "But. I remind you of what you could have been, if you had stayed and fought."
The laughter died. The hall's noise seemed distant. Tsunade's knuckles whitened around the dice.
"You don't know me," she said flatly.
"I know grief when I see it," Lelouch replied. His voice lowered, private, meant for her alone. "I know someone who drinks so she doesn't hear the ghosts when she sleeps. Someone who runs so the graves don't follow. You carry two of them, don't you? A brother and a lover. Nawaki. Dan."
Her breath hitched. Shizune started to rise, but Tsunade held her down with one hand, never breaking Lelouch's gaze.
For a long moment, the air was a blade between them. Then Tsunade smirked faintly, though her eyes were dark. "And what would you know of ghosts, boy?"
"Enough," Lelouch said simply. His hand brushed the edge of the table, as if steadying the weight of memory. "Enough to build a world where they don't multiply. And enough to see you wasting yourself at a dice table because you're afraid to try again."
The dice slipped from her hand, clattering across the wood. Six and six. The table murmured. Tsunade ignored it.
"Dangerous words," she muttered. "You keep talking like that, you'll end up in a grave next to the rest of them."
"Perhaps," Lelouch said. His eyes gleamed. "But I intend to choose which grave, and why."
Shizune looked between them, unsettled. Tsunade stared, the kind of stare that weighed a man's soul against her own exhaustion.
Then the hall door banged open.
Noise surged in from the street: raised voices, hurried footsteps. A white-haired man in a garish robe pushed inside, a boy trailing behind him, blond hair catching the lantern light.
Jiraiya. Naruto.
Tsunade stiffened. Lelouch's eyes flicked to them, then back to her. "Ah," he murmured, lips curling in faint amusement. "Your past catches up quickly."
But it wasn't only the sannin and his pupil. Lelouch's gaze slid to the window, where movement stirred in the alley. A pale figure with glasses — Kabuto. Watching. Reporting. Which meant Orochimaru was close.
Pieces converging. A board taking shape.
Naruto's voice carried across the hall: "Tsunade! Granny, we finally found you!"
The hall erupted in whispers. Tsunade's jaw tightened, eyes narrowing. Jiraiya's presence, Orochimaru's shadow, Naruto's shouting — all pulling at her in different directions.
And Lelouch sat calmly across from her, violet eyes sharp, already seeing the battle that was about to begin.
He folded his hands once, like a man preparing a move he had calculated five turns ahead.
"Lady Tsunade," he said softly, almost drowned by the noise. "This is where the dice truly fall. And I will be here when they do."