Shit
Kaiji gulped, sweating a little. His neck-length hair was sticky, and his prominent nose was running. It was humid in his little apartment, despite the cool breeze flowing through the cracked window. His room was a goddamn mess, the beer cans and newspapers wallpapering the empty crates and litter he left lying around. Frankly, it had become entirely too much of a pain to bother. He was busy, he'd been doing, like, job applications. He didn't have time for this shit. This...this waste.
The centerpiece of the room, however, was the $10,000 sitting in the middle of the room. It sat there, tempting him, greenbacks fluttering invitingly like loose skirts.
Tempting him
He swallowed again, the looseleaf looking shiny in the light. It glowed, yeah, it fucking glowed man. This was his solution. His out of this shithole. He'd never have to look back.
But it could be his out in a different way too...
But was it worth it? One was guaranteed. Money paved the way, full stop. His life would change irrevocably. Maybe. But the other was so much sweeter...
He'd barely resisted buying a second beer, and then a third, a fourth...
He'd needed the reminder, that he'd been offered. They say that only an immediate, stronger impulse can outdo a weaker one. And this one was potent. And it had kept him going. But did he want to risk it? If this fell through...
He was done. That was it. This was all the money he had in the world. All of it. He'd sold everything but the clothes on his back and the floor under his feet. But he'd never be able to make a comeback if he lost this. This was his last shot, a man at the end of his rope gambling the last inch of gripping room.
But he could buy another beer if he didn't. Another meal. Another months rent, another day, another chance. He could scrounge up again. He could do this again, when it was less of a risk. He could wait. He could...
Could...
The glowing words appeared again. Shining like the devil's palm. Promising him, so, so much.
HEY HEY HEY INVEST IN YOURSELF NOW BUSTER FOR BIG BIG GAINS! Offer valid now for $10,000 no refunds.
"Okay." Kaiji whispered.
"Not like I got a choice anymore."
The gains
Potential gains
A way out
Powers
He slapped his right palm over the stack of money, shivering, hand trembling.
"Okay." He whispered, tears shining in his eyes. "Alright. It's yours."
"It's all yours."
"Please."
"Oh god please."
"Please god please."
"Save me."
.
A long second passed. Kaiji screwed up his eyes, heart beating out of his chest, heat brimming out of his breaths, wondering, with not a little hope, did it fail is it done am I done can I buy a beer can I go on another day please happen please don't someone please choose for me I don't know
And then his palm warmed. The money beneath was heating up, it was burning up.
And then it vanished. The point Kaiji had been resting his weight on vanished beneath his hand, and he fell over. He tore his eyes open.
Gone
He looked left. He looked right.
Gone, it's gone, the money's gone
He pushed himself up on his hands. He still felt the weight, the strain on his arms and the tearing stretch in his abs.
The money's gone and you got nothing for it you stupid stupid idiot it was all a hallucination a trick from someone else to rob you Kaiji and now it's all gone
"Gone."
Kaiji's vision blurred.
"It's all gone."
His throat felt thick. Too heavy and compressed. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't swallow, and he couldn't...
Couldn't...
"It's over."
Couldn't do a thing.
Hot tears began running down his face.
"It's done. I'm done."
He giggled a little. He was done. That was it. In half a second, the rest of his life had vanished. The twenty, thirty years he could manage to eke out, gone gone gone.
"I'm sorry. Sorry mom. Sorry I didn't go to college, get a job, work hard."
He felt it pouring down his face, seeping into his beer-stained clothing.
"I'm sorry."
He fell, to his knees, to his arms, and curled up.
"Why me."
Thanks for buying 1 Gain(s), invest in stat?
Kaiji's head jerked up so hard he felt his head spin.
It had worked? It had worked?
It had worked.
"I..."
Kaiji slumped back on his shins, curled up under his body.
"I..."
He turned his head to the sky, to the mysterious floating blue box.
"I REGRET NOTHIIIIIING!" He screamed victoriously, both fists to the sky.
He stood up, and danced a little jig, kicking beer cans and crates, sending papers flying that just stuck to his dirty socks.
"Yeah, everything I did was leading up to this moment!" He grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Powers Powers Powers gimme something good!"
He clicked the floating button prompt, which brought up a...a stat screen?
KAIJI the top said, with a little pencil doodle of himself and some shitty numbers on the side.
Str, dex, int, the fuck was this...?
Kaiji scratched his head. He had no idea what these meant. Was this some user manual shit?
Wait...
Kaiji felt a horrible pang in his gut.
Was this something they taught in school? Was he being punished for his attention span again? This was some elitism bullshit, it wasn't fair, why was his...
His eyes fell to the last stat on the list. He knew that one. Lived with it, slept with it, prayed to it, cursed it, loved it, hated it.
Luck
Luck. This was going to change his luck. He could...
He looked down at his hands. Rough, dirty, kinda smelly.
He hadn't had the luck to be born wealthy. Didn't have the luck to have colleges beg him to attend or score that job that got him out of this. Didn't get as lucky as his friend, just as much of a slacker, but now the manager of a McDonalds 'cause he'd gotten lucky that one time in high school and Kaiji hadn't. Never Kaiji.
He could change that. Take it for himself. Change his life. Fuck the superpowers, he'd settle for a better him.
Invest point into luck?
Hell yeah
—-
"Shitty fuckin' luck, shitty fuckin' magic, shitty fuckin' shit." Kaiji grit his teeth and kept walking, kicking the occasional bit of trash as it crossed his path. He'd failed to get a job interview again.
Fuck, he was barely scraping by now. He'd already lost the apartment and moved into a flat so small that the manager had previously used it as a closet. The money wouldn't last much longer, he was down to a beer and a single cig a day.
But he needed it to keep going
He kicked a can, and this time it scuffed a shiny Volvo. Kaiji stopped.
Rich motherfucker bringing his shit around here?
Kaiji's finger itched. That hood ornament was real shiny. $600 shiny, at a good shop. Custom job that was, and this motherfucker wouldn't need it. The logo gleamed, and Kaiji nearly licked his lips. He could take a souvenir of his own, show this rich bitch what for.
Yeah...
Kaiji looked around, nervously. Nobody. It was a residential area, but the blinds were down everywhere he could see. The car was just sitting there.
Temping him
He crept closer. His fingers twitched spastically.
Even closer. His eye was twitching now, from the strain of not blinking. He was almost there, arm outstretched he could ding the top.
"My, looters are such a problem, no?"
Kaiji's heart reached up from his chest and seized his throat. Kaiji hissed and wheezed a little in shock, nearly leaking a bit.
He whipped sweating hard, looking guilty.
"Errr...yeah!" He laughed nervously. "Totally. The worst. None here though, good thing." His voice was two octaves too high, and his shaking eyes barely made out the well-dressed gentleman in front of him. "Safe neighborhood, this one. Perfectly safe."
An eerie grin pulled the man's face apart, and a jawline worthy of God himself shook as he laughed gently. "I'm so glad you agree. Looters..." a thick tongue snaked out, licking his lips. "They really are the scum of the earth. Men like that, why, I say no matter what happens, they got what was coming to them. Parasites of society, don't you think?"
Kaiji felt every limb of his body begin attempting to physically retract into his torso, and his voice started going so inaudible he lost his breath. "Paras...s, Yeah. I ...ate them so m...h. Just le... them r-r-ot."
The man seemed deeply amused. "Say, what's your name? You seem like a funny guy. Hard times?"
Kaiji managed to suck in a deep breath at that. Guess this old guy hadn't seen through him after all! Although...
Kaiji's eyes darted up to his face, and then immediately away.
Something about the way this old guy was looking at him...he'd seen that look. In the manager that turned him away, not even a half-hour ago. Why the hell was this old guy talking to him when he barely saw him as human?
Kaiji laughed, high-pitched and fake. "Yeah, uh, you could say that. Money troubles." He nearly swallowed his tongue as he realized what he'd said. "But not, an issue. Names Kaiji, and I'm fine, I'm fine." He laughed a little harder, and the elder man joined in with a slight chuckle.
"Ah I understand. I'm having a bit of trouble myself you see. I run things for a wealthy patron and" - he cut himself off, running thick fingers through slicked back grey hair. "But you aren't interested in that, I'm sure."
"I am I am!" Kaiji nearly tripped over himself to answer. Fuck, maybe this old guy wasn't so bad! Hell, what the fuck did Kaiji know about bad people, he sure seemed nice enough! Internally he grinned so hard his chapped lips bled.
Luck, you pulled through for me!
The elderly man chuckled, in a rather distinctively satisfied way. "Ah, I'm so glad to see a youth of such energy and vigor. But where are my manners? The name is Tonegawa."
Steel-grey eyes opened and focused on him like a hammered gavel.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kaiji."
So, shockingly, the Kaiji fandom is incredibly insular, by which I mean every other Kaiji fic I've seen is homoerotic fetish porn for some reason. Strange, for a high-stakes gambling manga but w/e. You do you, I guess. Not what I'm interested in writing, especially with such fantastic setup for. Y'know. A story about high-stakes gambling. This was originally gonna be a longpiece, but the way I set it up made it impossible, so I'll probably make a new fic without the gamer thing, and this will stay a oneshot to preserve...it.