Even though Hiro didn’t quite trust his Companion, he took its advice and touched the hilt of the enormous blade that the stone priestess had left behind. Much to his surprise, the blade shrunk until it was about the size of a pocket knife.
Roulette Weapon: Buster Kunai
Grade: B
Description: While it is on your person, the Buster Kunai is only a few inches long. When released with intention, this unique blade morphs back into its traditional size.
“Dude, what?” he whispered as he moved to some cover. Yet again, Hiro scanned the rooftops for the woman in the yellow raincoat. He didn’t see her, and he had no way to know which direction she had gone.
He returned his focus to the small dagger in his hand. When released with intention, it morphs back into its traditional size. Does that mean I should throw it?
Hiro looked back up at the fallen priestess Sentry, who remained in the courtyard, frozen.
He thought about throwing it at her, but then wondered if she would come alive again. While he had taken her weapon, she didn’t seem dead. Even without her sword, she would present quite the challenge for any Survivor who approached.
Maybe a bad idea.
After considering other options, Hiro decided to toss the new weapon a few feet away from him, some place where he could grab it and move to the roofs quickly.
“Here goes nothing.” Hiro flicked the dagger into the dirt about seven feet away. He gasped as the dagger transformed back to its regular size midair. It didn’t stab perfectly into the ground, but it certainly left a mark.
The implications hit him immediately. A throwing knife that morphs into an enormous sword? I will need to practice this somewhere, to get used to using it. Another thought came: It’s a Roulette Weapon, meaning I’ll only be able to use it this interim. That part sucks.
After making sure he was clear, Hiro slipped out from his cover, and touched the grip of the Buster Kunai.
It shrunk, faster than he expected, so fast that it caused him to nearly stumble forward.
He returned to cover, where he threw the Buster Kunai once again to test it.
As it had before, the blade bloomed in size and stabbed into the ground.
“Nice. Fuck, yes.” Hiro retrieved the blade and it shrunk. He kept it in his hand as he leaped for the rooftop. {Bounce} sent him two rooftops away, where he again checked his surroundings, searching for the woman who had attacked him.
Hiro crouched near some outdoor furniture covered in leaves and debris. Do I even need a sheath? I’ll only have it for two more days. He ran his finger along the blade. It actually wasn’t sharp at all in this form, more like a letter opener. “In that case, in the pocket you go.”
Before leaving the area, he used {Beacon} to set a marker. The lady in the yellow raincoat had been in the general vicinity. Perhaps she lived around there. Hiro couldn’t be certain, but he certainly wasn’t going to let her get away with forcing them into a fight against the priestess. “I’ll be back,” he whispered.
Hiro bounced away until he was comfortably far enough from where he’d encountered the woman. He checked his status to see that he had gone up in Dex and Reg, just as his Companion had said:
STR: 1.6 [+1 Roulette Boost]
STA: 2.4 [+2 Roulette Boost]
DEX: 1.4 [+1 Roulette Boost]
REG: 1.3 [+1 Roulette Boost]
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MIND: 2.1 [+2 Roulette Boost)
Soul Essence (SE): 10
[20 SE to next level.]
He blinked through more of the information.
Name: Hiro Johnson
Current Title: Wolf Ronin of Wall Street
Level: 2
Followers: 1,231
Interim Performance Grade: D
City Survivors: 876, 579
World Survivors: 380, 922, 641
More followers. Nice. He removed his black Hyottoko mask and put it in his backpack.
He wiped a little sweat from his face and took a quick look around. Hiro was now on the rooftop patio of an exclusive apartment building, a place with outdoor seating and fake grass. A home like this would have cost millions in the City, especially with its location. Now, it was abandoned.
And since it was so high up, it probably hadn’t been pillaged yet.
A grin appeared as he thought of what he might find inside. Hiro had been so wrapped up in the powers he had been given, and the ever present danger, that he hadn’t really thought about how beneficial they would be to gathering supplies.
He approached a large glass door and tried the handle.
It was locked.
Hiro could just break the glass, but that would be loud, and he didn’t know how many people had the same kind of power that he had which would allow them to easily join him. The lady in the yellow raincoat seemed like she could fly to some degree, and if she heard breaking glass, she might investigate.
Hiro produced a lock pick from his coin pocket. It was something he had learned to do months ago, when he was living in the subway with a woman named Monica, who was no longer with him.
She had been great at picking locks, and had taught him everything she knew.
Much of it began with focus, which Hiro did as he went to work. The handle popped open and he was in.
“Time for some rich people looting,” he whispered as he stepped inside the suite.
There was a smell in the penthouse, but it wasn’t so bad. It was mostly sewage, no dead pets or anything of the sort, and Hiro knew better than to open the refrigerator. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t search the cabinets.
He found an unopened bag of Lays sour cream and onion chips and nearly gasped with delight. Hiro dug in, savoring the salty treat. He’d grown used to scrounging for food, but wasn’t often he came upon something like an unopened bag of chips, one that hadn’t been crushed.
He continued shoveling the chips into his mouth. In searching the cabinets, Hiro found an unopened jar of peanut butter, which he took too. There was a can of cannellini beans and dry pasta. He took both of these as well.
Hiro had cooking supplies in the fallout shelter. With the water he had received from the gate, the pasta and beans would make for another meal. The peanut butter would provide much-needed protein and fat as well. They might be good on the Survivor Tenders, too.
He moved on, and took a spiral staircase up to a huge loft with the workstation, with sweeping views of the city, and a freshly made king-size bed. Hiro sat on the bed and resisted the urge to fall backward and doze off.
Later, he thought as he stepped into the closet. A man had lived there, some kind of tech bro by the looks of his clothing.
Hiro changed to a new pair of black jeans, fresh underwear and socks, a Supreme t-shirt, and he was about to change into a black hoodie, but decided to stash that away for now. His current hoodie was missing its sleaves, allowing for an easier werewolf transformation.
I guess this is as good of a place as any. Hiro placed his dirty clothing in the hamper, collected the rest of the clean underwear, a few pairs of socks, and put them in his backpack.
From there it was back to the kitchen, where he checked the drawers for random odds and ends.
“Nice.” Hiro took some batteries, rubber bands, and duct tape. He found a notebook and a pen, plus some protective gear including plastic gloves and surgical masks. Upon checking the silverware drawer, he decided to grab a single set of cutlery as well.
Just need to check the bathroom, he thought as he crossed the swanky studio apartment.
The bathroom he found a bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet, a toothbrush in its package, toothpaste, and an unopened bar of soap. Hiro checked a few of the pill bottles and recognized the word ‘Alprazolam.’
“This is Xanax,” he said as he read the label. “Caution: may cause drowsiness. Alcohol may intensify this effect. Use care when operating a car or dangerous machinery. Keep in a cool, dry place. A full bottle? Hell yeah.”
Things like this would have been something Hiro could have bartered a month or so back. It could still have its usages, so he took it, and turned back to the living room.
His bag was heavier now, especially after stuffing a blanket into the top, right over the teddy bear. Once his Hyottoko mask was back over his face, Hiro turned to the penthouse’s rooftop exit and immediately ducked behind a couch.
Holy shit, he thought as a large webbed foot landed on the patio outside.
It was either a monster, or a hunter, the beast larger than a pterodactyl, with wings covered in matted black feathers. The more he looked at it, the more it resembled an overgrown raven, at least its body.
An idea came to Hiro. He removed his Buster Kunai from the pocket of his backpack.
He would only get one shot, but he was getting used to these sorts of odds.
With a deep breath out Hiro crept toward the back door, prepared to spear the winged monster with his new Roulette Weapon.