Chapter 1 The Games Begin

Hello, and welcome to the games! It may start off slow, but stick with it, it'll get better as it goes. I hope you enjoy! (I own nothing)

I lazily woke up at the brink of dawn like I do every other morning in my bed at the orphanage. I grabbed my converse and snuck outside of the orphanage so I wouldn't wake up any of the sleeping orphans. Once outside I put on my shoes and began to walk over to the forest opening at the main plaza of town. I passed by a few shops whose owners knew me, and they gave me either a little bit of munny or food for the kids at the orphanage. I thanked them and continued heading to the forest.

It had been announced that our world was next to be part of the Hunger Games, so everybody was kinda on edge worrying about their kids; I didn't want to bother them too much about money since there was a chance that they'd need it for a funeral. I walked through the opening to the forest and began my stroll to the traps that I set. I didn't bother grabbing my weapons- Rose had already grabbed them since I was late.

"So how's hunting going?" Rose asked me. She had a book bag over her shoulder, probably filled with different fruits and herbs that she knows.
"Gotta check them out, hopefully there's something edible," I told her as birds began to chrip their morning song. Rose rolled her eyes and handed me the swords that I found in the old creepy mansion."So how's gathering going?" I asked putting the sheath between my belt and pants.

"Well, that's why I came over. There seems to be too much for me to carry and I need help moving it all to the plaza before they prepare for the raffle," she told me, eagerly pointing at the stuff in the distance behind me. I sighed and agreed to help since my traps were along the way. This was our usual routine. I'd hunt, she'd gather, and then we'd split it. I would sell about half of my share to the market and use the money I got to buy more food for the orphanage.

The orphans that are around 13 work in some of the shops to earn some extra money, but even with that we're still barely able to feed everyone, especially since the heartless arrived. I've had to skip meals in order to let everyone eat well, even though some of the kids didn't have the will to go on anymore since their parents were taken from them.

Rose and I made our way behind the abandon mansion and into the garden that she had made, where there were about four or five more book bags of fruits waiting for us. I opened the first one and found it to be filled with cherries, Rose's favorite.
"You know, cherries may sell well but I think this is a little much," I told her, lifting the bag over my shoulder. I grabbed another bag; this one had the strawberries that I snacked on for breakfast that morning.

"Well take some back to the orphanage, you know they like cherries" she told me, grabbing one of the smaller bags as I grabbed the last one.
"Yeah, and last time they ate too many and I had to nurse them back to health," I replied, picking one of the blue berries from the bush before Rose could notice. She grew a couple of berries here, but mostly cherries since she loves them so much.

"Well, you got to be a doctor for a while didn't you?" she asked playfully. I rolled my eyes and began looking for my traps, but was disappointed when I found that they didn't catch anything

"I swear I'll stick to fishing next time, these traps aren't working for me," I said, finding nothing but empty, failed traps.
"Well, that's what you get for looking on the internet for survival traps," Rose teased as we began to follow the trail back to town.
"Yeah, well its not like I had any better ideas at the time," I answered. All of a sudden we heard an animal cry in pain in the distance.

"Seems like the heartless are hunting again," Rose murmured warily, inching closer to me. The sound would make anybody at least a little scared; the heartless here travel like wolves.

"Yup. I'm kinda surprised they're up at this hour. Come on, the sooner we're out of here the better," I said, quickening our pace. We headed to the farmers market that was close by and sold most of our crops for cash. Rose seemed to have earned a little more than she needed so she decided that she should buy some ice-creams and head for the clock tower for brunch.

"Jun? Do you think we'll be chosen this year?" Rose asked as we sat on top of Twilight Town's clock tower eating sea-salt ice-cream.
"Don't go and jinx us, but I honestly don't know. I hope not… but if I were chosen I'd make sure I'd win and go after Xehanort and end this game of his," I declared, looking down at the people who are walking to the town's square.

"So... how many do you have inside the raffle?" she asked me.
For every raffle ticket you put in you'll receive a month's supplies to live off of, but your name becomes entered in a raffle to be chosen to compete in the games. With me living in the lowest part of town, I've had to place extras to make sure the orphanage can keep going if I'm not there. I've been taking care of the kids the best I could, but we're running out of food. Then, when the games come, I have to put in enough extra ballots so I can get a month's supplies for everyone just in case.

"I have about 157, I believe," I answered, which made her put on a sad face.
"Then your chances are pretty high, aren't they? I only have about 50 inside..." she said softly, barely able to hang on to her ice-cream. She lived in a higher district than I did, but she wasn't any better off. She was kinda like me- no parents or family except for her younger sister, who's still too young to place any ballots (not that she'd let her do it anyway). The heartless got to her parents and she's had to raise her sister ever since. I've been helping with her house by paying half the rent from time to time, but she's basically on her own.

"I know… still, let's go and get this over with and hope our world wins so we can go another day without fear," I sighed. I tried again to prepare myself for if I got called, but with no luck. I wouldn't really know how to react.
"What if we're both called? What then?" she asked me. I really didn't have answer for that.

"Then we defy the rules of only one winner an make it a tie," I assured her, acting tough. But the only thing that did was to make her use that fake smile to hide how she's feeling at the moment. I hate it when she wears that smile around me.
"Come on, let's get this over with," I called to her, walking down the clock tower to the town square where they called the tributes.

"Hello everybody, this is Xigbar here! I hope you're ready for the games this year, cause two of your own will fight for your world!" he exclaimed. It wasn't a secret that he enjoyed being Xehanort lackey and loved to pick out the toys that were going to fight to the death.

"First up are the girls! Now let's see which lucky lady to play in the games," he announced, reaching his hand into the bowl. He searched around and finally pulled one out, smiling as he read the card and began staring at Rose. "Well, it looks like our lovely lady is Rose Kimura!" It felt like time stopped as I heard Rose's name being called. Heartless with cameras attached to them circled around above us, getting a good view of her. I then looked over to Xigbar. He had on a huge smile and was staring at Rose delightedly as if he had gotten his target.

"Wish me luck, Jun," was all Rose whispered to me before walking up to the stage. I could hear the sorrow and fear in her voice, but she walked onto the stage and turned to the crowd with an emotionless expression on her face.

"Alrighty! Looks like we have a cutie this year. Alright then, now for the gentlemen…. Jun Black Wind! Weird last name, but come on up here, sport!"

I clenched my teeth and walked up on stage, ignoring the cameras circling above me. I knew at that moment that this wasn't done at random- it was rigged. No way was it at random.

"Well, there you have it! I hope you guys enjoy the opening ceremonies. Till next year! May the odds be ever in your favor!" Xigbar yelled, before a dark aura engulfed us all, sending us to who knows where.