The Wheel of Fortune's Story

Aki felt his attention start to escape from the situation when the stranger did nothing but place spoonfuls of whatever it was into his mouth. It didn’t make things better that he ate in such an attention-grabbing way, with the spoon flipped upside-down with every bite. His eyes looked at it, as he hopped on one foot closer to the dessert. ‘Darn it, this darn little kid. What is he doing staying so far away from that interesting dessert?’ But strain as he might, Aki could get no closer to the dessert. Reaching out one hand forlornly in that direction, he was busy stretching towards the dessert. He got a whiff of it too - it seemed like something fruity. Maybe cherries? He took another deep breath, and nearly sighed with annoyance. ‘Nuts. Nuts and cherries don’t go very well together.’

“Late. But fortunately for you, I’m in a good mood - this Amerstall is delicious,” the stranger chimed, before continuing to eat the NutandFruitDessert as though taunting him. With a glower in his direction, not as though he could see it, Aki wet his lips in preparation for making a grand entrance. ‘Wait… was it - Cherry Time? No, that wasn’t it. Maybe, Stop Eating that Dessert In Front of Me While I Can See?’ He bit his lip, while sitting on the ground with a pout on his face as he ran through various combinations of possible phrases. ‘Be Quiet and Let Me Talk… uh…’

Getting that dessert was more important. He vaguely noted that some other people had walked into the meeting, maybe they were having some meeting for boring people, or something. There were so many things that they could be doing other than watching a stranger eat something in front of him. The stranger stopped eating, but Aki could still smell the sweet, slightly honey-like smell that pervaded throughout the air. He must not be done and saving it for me.’ Quickly, a smile made its way on Aki’s face and his thinking became more frenzied. ‘I’m not bored anymore… You should go put on a show… for my entertainment.’ But at this point, none of the phrases he could think of seemed to work.

He watched with slightly detached eyes as the stranger pulled out a scythe and used it to threaten the fellow students. ‘This is the weirdest excuse of a club that I’ve ever seen. What do they do? Get threatened by Mister Scythey here after being teased with food?’ It was then that something finally clicked inside his mind. “Ah, now you’re being interesting!” He stated with a triumphant smirk, before his form flickered into view. “Hey, Scythey-boy, are you going to finish that NutandFruitDessert or not? I can still smell it quite well, or are you going to share and be useful for once?” He stood up, before stepping closer to the stranger, carefully ignoring the sharp edge of the scythe as he did so.

“It’s bad manners to hog all of it for yourself,” he stated to the strange mask-wearing person. “Ah, don’t say that you want to be known as a jerk - that’s just stupid and boring.” He stepped closer to the dessert, before picking up the spoon to place some of the cold stuff inside his mouth. He promptly spat it out. “What is this? Apricot?” He turned to glare at the stranger, with a frown on his face. “Come on, you didn’t have the common sense to pick something better than apricot? You’re about as useless as a cherry tree that just grows flowers and no cherries. Apricots are too close to the taste of honey, and therefore, it’s too sweet. No - you would be better off with cherries, of course. Cherries.”

He threw the spoon behind his shoulder, before turning his attention to the metal package with the clear lock. His eyes brightened, and he threw the white scarf over his shoulder, before stretching one arm towards it. “Lemme have that,” he ordered with a grin. “Is it a present?”

Aki stayed there, one hand reaching imperiously for the box as he barely noticed that two of the StupidClubMembers had ended up leaving. No, it didn’t concern himself. The clear lock seemed to be taunting him when it didn’t make its way into his hands, ready to give up all of its secrets. Then, a hand appeared out of nowhere and snatched the package away from Mister Scythey.

‘Idiot SnatchingHand.’ His golden eyes narrowed as he twirled around on the ball of his foot - to see the owner of this hand. It was a shorter girl with the annoyingest brown hair. “No, presents aren’t made for people that rudely interrupt someone else. Hasn’t your mother taught you any manners?” AppearingHandGirlie said as though attempting to explain her own actions. How annoying - it seemed as though all of these people decided that they no longer wanted to listen to the only important person in the entire city - no, world. Himself. He continued to hold one hand out, waiting for her to get through with her little rebellion and finally hand him the package. That’s all she existed for anyways.

But no~ She wanted to become the hub of the wheel as well. She, even more stupidly, tucked the interesting present into her pocket - and he stepped forward, threatening. He stood there for a second, barely registering the fact that she was getting smaller and smaller.

“Come on, girlie, gimme that already. There’s no point in having a box - it only exists to be opened by me,” he ordered again, before realizing that the AppearingHandGirlie was trying to leave, without even attempting to tell him what the present was - or even better, simply handing the present over to him. He leapt into the air, before curling into a ball, and bounded over the head of the girl. Landing on the ground in a crouch, he stood up, before opening his palm upwards, in preparation for summoning his spear. “Unless you want to see just what color your insides are - you know, they’re probably not the perfect shade of cherries. Probably… crimson?”

“What did I say about pests?” said a familiar voice coldly. “Divine Retribution.”

Aki looked upwards, to see Scythey-boy pointing his scythe at him with cold violet eyes. “Wait. What?” he exclaimed, before a black mass of something shot towards him. With a muffled curse, his hand glowed slightly, and after a few seconds, there was an ornate spear in his hand. But - that was a few seconds too late.

The black projectile flew straight to its mark and hit the bone of his shoulder. His hand flew up to the wound, and his hands felt a liquid oozing out from there. “Hey, Scythey-boy, what was that for?” he asked, as something red gleamed between his fingers, before a few drops of blood hit the ground. He gave it a glance, before a petulant frown made its way over his expression.

“No, no, this -.”

“Divine.”

“won’t -.”

“Retribution.”

“Wait for me to finish, Scythey.” He murmured in annoyance, before pointing the tip of his spear towards the black mass that was shooting towards him again. Both hands were placed about a shoulder’s width apart, and his right foot inched forward slightly. The point of the spear jerked upwards, as he pushed forward at the incoming projectile. The black mass divided itself around his spear, and continued to come speeding in his direction. “Shoot,” he said, before rushing out the door.

But even as fast as he pumped his arms and legs, he couldn’t outrun the black mass. It slammed into his back, and he stumbled forwards, out of the room. He looked around, before sprinting forward, towards the alleyway in the back. The breath was knocked out of him, when he crashed into the rough brick walls, leaving a smear of red blood. He slowly turned around, making sure to keep the wound on his back from touching the grimy surface behind him. After all, he didn’t care what happened, as long as it didn’t hurt.

Aki stood there in wait, waiting for someone to appear there for him to take refuge in their shadow. His golden eyes narrowed with annoyance, and he frowned, sulkily. His breath came in short, shallow breaths, and he let the tip of his spear to drag on the ground. Really, he really hated to be hurt. One hand dug through his pockets, looking for a painkiller or something of the like. A look of mirth crossed his face, as his hand retreated out of his pocket - a smashed cherry in his hand. Aki then popped the red fruit in his mouth, and closed his eyes in enjoyment of the taste.

His previous calmness on the wall had been ruined when the Scythey inside the room continued to shoot missile after missile after him, but never got close enough for the Wheel of Fortune to actually make any attempt towards offense. His mirthful golden eyes were narrowed in something close to focus as he glowered towards Brio’s back door.

“Divine Retribution,” came the icy cold voice as Judgement shot black projectile after projectile at the far more serious than usual Wheel of Fortune. He had gotten rid of his spear, and was currently attempting to use his tome, The Art of Escaping Boredom to try and deflect the attacks. The cover was already torn and many of the creamy pages from inside were exposed to the cruel outside. Still, despite his curses and his many attempts to escape the brunt of the damage, Aki continued to possess many cuts and scrapes all over his body.

His normally cheerful, and insolent smile had drooped into a deep frown. Around the boy, who barely had enough time to deflect the attacks, let alone move, there was a red stain on the ground as his wounds continued to drip blood. His left hand clutched at the largest cut, the one that he had gotten before on his shoulder while he hopped around on one leg, trying to keep his balance despite the gash on his upper left knee. However, luckily for him, the stain wasn’t completely made of blood, much of it came from one of Judgement’s attacks hitting the stash of cherries that the Wheel of Fortune had hidden in his pocket.

“Divine Retribution,” came the voice again. As this black projectile flied towards the boy, he suddenly dived on the ground using the book as a mattress. His golden eyes winked closed as the breath was knocked out of him, and to make matters worse, it appeared as though the black object had circled around to look at him. However, he didn’t seem to see any member of the Stupidest Club ever coming to help in beating him up. Aki yelped as he jumped to his feet - but the black object still hit him squarely in the arm.

His golden eyes were narrowed as he concentrated, knowing that hopefully this barrage could not continue. “This isn’t fair!” he suddenly called out, at the source of these black objects. “I’m supposed to be the one who’s watching you deal the damage, not the one that’s taking it! Darn it! This isn’t right!” The opponent seemed to ignore his remarks, sending yet another attack towards the Wheel of Fortune’s chest. He groaned in annoyance, before all but threw his shield at it. The two collided, and he was pleased to see that the black blob had disappeared.

But, now his shield was too far from reach, and his agility was already reaching its limits. Looking around, he suddenly dashed further into the myriad of alleyways. Looking to see that no one had witnessed his complete and utter, loss, he muttered under his breath. “Idiot Scythey,” he said, while panting. “Getting in my way like that. It’s not like there’s a reason for him to exist if he doesn’t give me a show.” Luckily for him, he spotted no one else. After checking once, a hand reached up and all but tore the ornate silver mask from his face.

With a flash of sudden physical changes, a very wounded Aki Evedane occurred, his features frozen into a blank mask. The previous injury to him arm had reappeared, but the bandage wasn’t as neat as he had remembered. His icy blue eyes narrowed as he sucked in his breath from the sudden pain from the injuries - he didn’t remember them being so painful while his mask was on. He gave a slight frown at no one in particular, while he looked around himself to see a small trail of blood leading to his current direction. ‘I’ll have to get out of here, or that strange hooded man might come after me again. And without my mask on and injured, I’ll be killed in no time.’

Sometimes he hated his memory when wearing the mask. All he could keep clear in his mind was the previous battle in the past, and the scent and tastes of the strange dessert - oh, and of course, he remembered the box. He understood that he knew who the people in the room were, but there was only a blur of faces and voices. The Wheel of the Fortune had probably decided them to be useless… None of these, he could place with names, but then, of course, he probably didn’t even know them in the first place.

‘That must be Itex,’ he thought as he looked back towards all that he had seen in that strangely-scented room. ‘Unless there is another organization with Masks running away. Exactly what was in that package? … It has to be something important, especially if that strange guy with a mask and scythe was taking things to such extremes. Those people, they were my classmates, weren’t they? If they are seriously part of the Itex, I’ll never have any peace between them and the Maskies.’

Aki couldn’t say that his mask never led him to strange places in Throme while it was on the hunt for adventure, but neither could he remember being dealt such heavy blows in the past. He had never gotten injured to this extent - there was a cut weeping blood on his shoulder, left arm, and left leg. Placing one hand into his pocket, he took out his bandages and painkillers. Quickly, he punched out two of his pink painkillers from the silver packet, and placed the two in his mouth. He unravelled the bandage, ready to start wrapping, when he realized that there was only about a meter left of the roll.

His blue eyes narrowed. It seemed as though he was going to have to go to Sagaro Mall. He would never go to Maybelle Avenue, even though it was just around him, for something this important to him. Anyways, he had a special discount from that store on the first store - and even if he didn’t have his wallet on him at the moment, they’d give him the bandages on credit. Not to mention, they were the only store in all of Throme with the particular painkillers that he liked. So, all that he needed to do was to hurriedly wrap up his leg with the rest of the roll - his leg so that he would be able to make it all the way to Sagaro Mall without falling too badly, go past Goatstone Bridge, then into Sagaro Mall. Two shops to the left of the North exit, and he’d be able to buy his bandages, wrap up his injuries, and then leave quickly to return home.

Passing through Maybelle Avenue, he shot all the passersby, who shot him curious glances probably dealing with his injury, an icy glare. It was none of their business. “Liron Pier is currently being renovated. It is dangerous there, please do not interrupt the construction.,” blasted a loudspeaker, sounding throughout the complete area. Aki shrugged, this happened every now and then, and nobody really went to Liron Pier outside of those with boats anyways. He passed over Goatstone Bridge, seeing that the troll in the center was holding a wad of money. With an inward smirk at the events, he passed through the bridge to the other side of the river, limping slightly. The thin layer of bandages had already been bled through, and he quickened his step slightly, hoping to make it before he lost too much blood.

After about forty of walking, he finally got to Sagaro Mall. His blue eyes scanned the classy building before him, before he strode towards the front door. Someone else was standing there in front of the building - the same girl from the park, Oskana. Her cryptic words still ringing through his head, ‘It’ll be better to ignore her’ he strode forward as though he hadn’t seen her, past her, into the building.