Chap 147:lady luck
In a dark void, where nothing exists, no light, no living beings. Neither time nor space can be here, nor can anyone be found wandering here, in this cursed place.
*bubble* *bubbles* almost anyone.
“Hh—kh… HHH—! …haa—hh…!”
A deep mouthful of gargles came from the murky substance that made this place. The very darkness wave and tremble like the surface of a pond. Then the surface broke, and a lone figure surfaced, he emerge through the empty space.
Takumi gasped an breath devoid of any air, shock first came to his mind. But it was snuffed out by his understanding and familiarity with this place. his ragged breathing stop suddenly.
Dragging himself to a stand, Takumi have found this place again. Just by looking around once, he can tell. He had came here before, back all the way when he subjugated Mahoraga. the memories.
"Am I really dead ? For real this time!" He look again, nothing he can see or feel. he is lost, in a empty place.
“No, hon, you ain’t dead… but I reckon you’re sorta close.” A sudden voice sounded. Female, Takumi can't pinpoint where it originates from.
"Who goes there?"
"If ya wanna know, sure! Jist c’mere, now, don’t be shy. Scoot on in a little closer so I ain’t gotta holler across the room.” Hearing it again, she sounded sweet and a bit Southern American mixed with some flirtiness to the way she says things.
Takumi questioned why he could even understand the foreign tone. He had never even been to America.
A sudden ray of light filled his field of sight, and then he was in a different place. It was a huge ballroom. The fancy lights, the expensive looking wood that made this realm.
He sat at a long, smooth rectangular table, large enough to seat eight to ten players comfortably. Its surface is covered in a deep green felt, smooth to the touch and marked with clean, gold-lined patterns indicating betting zones, card placement areas, and payout markings.
At one end sits the iconic roulette wheel, divided into red, black, and one single green numbered pockets, where he hears the sounds of a small ball spinning.
The felt area displays a grid of numbers from 1 to 36 in three columns, surrounded by clearly marked betting zones for red or black, odd or even, high or low, and various group bets.
Big, Grand-
'Divine.' Is the only word he can thought of describing where here is.
Takumi saw glimpses of the other people playing, but none is more eye-catching than she who sat at the head of the table, at the dealer’s station; her presence dominates the whole room.
Now that he notices her, it's like he can't take his eyes off her, just her apearance alone has made everyone else faded away in his eyes. Long hair that has two tones of colors, black and white. Tied neatly in a eway, it combine the two color to make her even more beautiful and to not to interfere with her game. Wearing a simple button-up long-sleeve shirt with a suit vest over it, and a lovely bowtie at her neck.
"Well, hey now, sugar pie, how 'bout them peaches?" She greeted, eyes sharring their owner glint of amusement. Two orb of black and white stared at him. Into Takumi's very being or soul, and he now knows the identity of the goddess who sat opposite to him.
"Hello, ma'am."
"Oh don't ma'am me, you made me feel old." She said with a cherry attitude of someone much older than she looks.
Y'all can call me Sherry, or Lady Luck if'n you prefer the human tongue, bless your heart.
Takumi saw her cleaning the chips on the table and took out the ball, stopping the spin. For some reason, the more he watches, he feels a sense of disappointment, not in the goddess obviously, no. He felt it for himself, big talk and acting all high, only to get whooped and die so fast.
'I wonder...' his thought was going back to earlier, about what he could've done.
"Well now, sugar pie, stead of bein' all tore up 'bout what's lost, how 'bout we stir up some fun with a li'l game?" The goddess's voice stirred him back to the table.
Her arm folded to rest her chin, prompting her chest to be shown by the way she leaned into the raised wooden edge.
The man took one look at the spinning ball inside the wheel.
"Uhm-sure."
"That's more like it darlin. Now, place your bet-oh wait, you don't have any chips. Let me just *snap* and voi-La!" With a delighted smile and a snap of her finger, a stack of chips appeared at his side.
Ten chips, there's no value written on the chip itself. The trim of them all has a similar black and white color, stored inside a tray for keeping the play area neat and organized.
"Don't let the dealer wait hon, come on. Show ma some of that gambling spirit."
"Gambling spirit ?"
"Oh~don't play coy~" she giggles, smooth southern accent drawing out. "You know exactly what it is."
Despite what she said, Takumi didn't really understand it.
"No?" She said, almost sad. "You meant to tell o'ld wille me~ that you aint got the foggiest of the idea ?"
Takumi wasn't a gamble, not in a real sense. He played, he took chances, just not at a table like this. Not in a real game.
"Shushes hon, let me tell you something. My lucky charm." She placed a chip down on a random number. Twenty-two.
"The beauty of a roulette game is that you can always bet, hon, now lookie here." Her finger pointed to the ball that was still spinning, rolling indecisively inside the wheel.
"Luck is the sheer force of nature in which no one can control."
"It held the smallest of your fate and yet it can also be the most decisive when it all comes down." Her hand reached over the table to him, in his palm was a single chip.
"Reincarnation ? All the toys, gear, power and watchamacallit ? Items and do-das? That I gave to you? All those times when the lighting of black struck ? That's me, hon."
"What?" He blurred, his mind is slowly working its way. And she can see it turning, gears grinding, closer to the answer.
"Yes, hon, no beings, living or dead, can make me draw for them. Not anyone but-You." *boop*
A delicate finger tapped his nose, twirling it, she smiled brightly at Takumi's face, which was now showing a very interesting emotion.
"You're..." he stammered "you're..."
"That's right, Ace, I'm your-"
[Lady luck, hon]