“Guinelle, was it? Luck favors you, girl! Guess what, we exactly know the person you’re looking for. We may have an idea of where she was right now,” the guy boasted with a peal of suspicious laughter towards the sky, leaning back.
Quimora stance her quivering body, stepping back from the mohawk man approaching her. “W–Why should I believe you? You seem unreliable, I suppose.”
The mohawk man chuckled, “That hurts my feelings, you know? I may be a punk, but I’m still the loverboy of Piza. They call me Italiano, come dice la gente. My intentions are pure, little girl. We just need you to follow, we’ll lead the way.”
Quimora bumped her back into a wall as the three unknowns cornered her. “A–Are you sure you know who I am looking for? I already misplaced my trust many times. I won’t be bewitched by the charming words that you contend.” Behind her overconfidence, her heartbeat counted a timer in which it would explode soon.
“Oh, what a lovely reaction! Of course, I know that figure. The people here are always loyal to– AWW!!” Italiano reached out his hand towards Quimora’s shoulder, but his fingers bent into an upward right angle after a string-wide yellow-glowing barrier divided the space between them.
Quimora witnessed Guinelle coming into view from the intersection as her palm pointed at Italiano glowed sun-gold. “Pure intentions? Breaking promises can cause one person’s tongue to fly off. Be honest with me, Italiano. Are you going to teach this young girl gambling?”
“T–That wasn’t gambling, Guinelle! That’s Gatcha! Newbies should understand the power of low success rates equating to how the divine favors one's life! WAIFU IS ETERNAL!”
“She doesn’t understand what you’re saying. And…” Guinelle wandered her eyes up and around, spotting some people spectating at their windows. “...This isn’t the place to talk about that.”
“I… We understand,” Italiano pulled his arms and turned away. Guinelle followed them who planned to leave the alleyway, but she halted and turned at Quimora. She tilted her head slightly to the side and asked.
“What?”
Inside the Memento Arcade, the infamous game establishment that attracts people with the dancing lights in its signage harbored various arcade machines that enhance both the mental and the physical development of the body. Most of the customers are teenage students who just got home from school, and fewer are content creators and salary workers.
On their first floor, a bundle of Gatcha machines stocked like a shoe locker, each with different catered references, drop rates, and prices. Although the three punks already lost their chances earlier before begging on the streets, they witnessed Guinelle who they knew had a bad stroke of luck.
Guinelle inserted each token in the slot and pulled the ball-shaped lever down with a darting gaze. Each roll, she received the lowest rarity of the egg, a monochrome, whereas the three exclaimed with hurt and disappointment. ““Aww.””
After twenty pulls, Guinelle halted and turned at Quimora like a sloth. She concealed and clenched her hands behind her where Quimora couldn't see. With a smile appearing forced, she asked with a carefully controlled tone, “D–Do you want to try?”
“I–I don’t know what that thing is.”
“This is a tool to distract you from your problems. I only followed Saori’s advice: to calm you down. Your goal is to get any eggs higher than three stars. If you did, you already saved us.”
Quimora noticed that Nebula shifted her name to Saori, concluding that the name Nebula should be left anonymous. Learning may be a regret as per her experience, but experiencing new things was a completely different matter.
Quimora sat on the chair beside Guinelle and put the tokens Guinelle gave her. The seven limited pulls she acclaimed should be worthy before Guinelle exploded into smithereens and started cursing the gods. When she dragged the first lever, a four-star egg ejected from the dispensing door of the machine.
Guinelle and the three idiots’ eyes sparkled as their cheeks dragged their smiles from ear to ear. Quimora, unaware of the odds, took the egg and showed it to them. The three idiots started mumbling.
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“Oh, Jeez us! It’s too shiny.”
“She might be lucky.”
“Yeah, lucky… Lucky enough that only 4-star eggs remained as we consumed the remaining 3 stars.”
“Since there’s no reset yet, she might have the chance to get a 5-star! Maybe twice!”
“Yeah! Go, newbie! Get addicted to the Gatcha trap!”
Quimora pulled another try. A golden egg dropped at the dispenser hole. When they saw the egg coming out, Guinelle and her friends covered their eyes from the dazzling ray it emitted. Guinelle remarked, “My morals… I might need to see an ophthalmologist soon.”
Their Gatcha hell ended with seven complete victors with Quimora claiming five 4-star and two 5-star eggs. To debunk that the machine already lost its 3-star eggs, Guinelle gave it another try. It would be a chance for her to win this unfair lottery.
However, she received the same colorless egg, whereas the three exclaimed, “Awww…”
From slots, rhythm, and even fighting games, the group didn’t notice the dawn of the afternoon sunset as they enjoyed each available machine like there was no tomorrow. Guinelle solely handled the costs for Quimora’s expenses. As they left the building, Italiano’s group of three waved them goodbye, parting ways to the opposite direction of the street.
To pass some time, Guinelle invited Quimora to a nearby park where children aged four to nine chased each other along the ebullient playground. Guinelle left Quimora sitting in a chair to buy something nearby. Peace provided warmth to Quimora’s heart as she watched the kids play, reminiscing about the old times he had with her brother.
Her brother always invited her to play tag along their plains and the nearby trees. They even had playmates from the children of her father’s employers. This sole reason made her believe that her childhood was satisfied, not knowing that Saori never experienced these moments before.
A warm smile painted across her flushed face lost in thought. She didn’t notice Guinelle nearby until a cup of ice cream obstructed her view. “I hope you enjoyed yourself.”
“Thanks,” Quimora nodded and replied, leaving the smile untouched. When Guinelle sat and licked her ice cream, sharing the same view as the cheerful kids, Quimora asked, “How about you?”
Guinelle pressed her lips together and stiffened her arm. She grimaced as the thump of her heart immobilized her. Her teeth chattered as if the temperature shifted to absolute zero. Before her pride overtook her, she mumbled.
“I’m sorry… for what happened.”
Quimora’s crimson eyes widened. Her upturned face didn’t change. She knew that Guinelle might be referring to the incident that took place on the same day. “I–It’s not a problem, Guinelle. I suppose those three guys do have good intentions.”
Guinelle shook her head in response. Her other hand clenched over her lap, trembling uncontrollably, uttering the held-back words Quimora should hear. “I don’t mean that… I’m sorry… for everything that happened.”
Realizing her intentions, Quimora’s lips slanted straight, harboring the memories she almost forgot after a massive spike of euphoria. She swallowed as her remorse pulled her glance back at the playground. However, a loud exhale of relief resonated through Guinelle whose gape turned to Quimora.
“......It’s alright.”
“Alright? Look, you now lost your family in the prison. We are all the cause of it. You should be angry!” Guinelle squealed in a high-pitched tone that gradually softened as she gazed back at her lap. “What we did was… immoral.”
Quimora hummed and nodded. “But even so… Those people I cherished, Hera, Jinx, Macy, and the others, they all wished for me to be happy… to live freely in peace. Even if I don’t want to, they are all set on freeing me. Like they always say, a dove shouldn’t be surrounded by thousands of crows. It’s been two weeks since, but it felt like yesterday.”
“Still…” Guinelle argued further, but words already left her mouth, leaving nothing to say. She came to a stop after hearing a continuous heavily loaded sniff that held back a cry. She pivoted to Quimora’s puffed face, fostered eyes that were teary and fully red.
“But still… I’m so lucky I knew them…”
Guinelle rubbed Quimora’s back as she drew her eyebrows. Should she feel sad? Guilty? Remorse? Unsure of what to feel, she frowned. However, the pride that almost controlled her words vanished without a trace.
“I’m glad I had the chance to interact with them too.” Now, Guinelle understood Nebula’s intention, to find a closure with the regret that she souvenired. “I felt that I was the one being lectured. As you see, Nebula-sama always plans things ahead of time. If Rox didn’t mess with the prison’s files, they wouldn’t have announced your departure, and I’d get beaten more than I had.”
“I–Is that alright with you?”
Guinelle sparked a slow faint smile that soon made her pearl-blue eyes. “Look! It’s melting!”
“Oh! Should I just lick it?” Quimora flinched, which caused the ice cream twirl to nearly fall. Guinelle licked the food, which Quimora imitated. Quimora’s tongue savored the popping and freezing sensation of the ice mixed with sweet cream. “I suppose this tastes familiar.”
“Ice creams are Nebula-sama’s favorite sweet,” Guinelle bragged. “This was made by a certain genius from a tavern in a nearby town five years ago. Now, the family of the confiseur currently lives here and made a living from this delicacy.”
“I see… Somewhat, this calming sensation brings me back.”
On the brink of the moment, Guinelle had a secret she never told anyone, a message that only Quimora should hear. She cleared her throat and confronted Quimora with furrowed eyebrows and a serious tone.
“I think I now know the reason why Nebula-sama sent me with you, though I haven’t disclosed this to anyone yet. Even if a group of hunters attack a pack of crows, there will always be a wounded survivor. You see… Our mission can’t be called a complete success…
“I have left a huge flaw…”
Inside her, she made a mistake that Nebula might have already known.