Luca is more packed than usual today. Some of it is probably Sphere Break, but I bet most of the people came for Shelinda and her broadcast. Buddy, Calli, and Brother move off to check out the Break crowd, but I stick around in the city's center. There's a break in the broadcasting, I guess. Shelinda is nowhere to be seen, but Cid and Shinra are seated on a bench and Nooj stands near the fountain, surrounded by a small crowd of people. His words become clear as I approach.
"It really does feel like my other arm. Ow, yes, I do feel it when you pinch me. Thanks for the experiment, though." Nooj's voice is strained, but still polite. He glances up as we approach. Relief softens his features. "Rikku! Excuse me, I'd like to talk to my friend for a few moments. Don't worry. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for questions later." He pushes his way through the small crowd. They pout, but let him go and form a tight circle to gossip.
"They're inexhaustible," Nooj complains as he moves to us. I can't help but watch his gait again. His movements are totally normal, no limp at all. Even the hesitance from yesterday is gone. "I saw you in the crowd yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to speak with you. How have you been?"
"Pretty good. Probably better than you've been managing," I chirp.
"Gee, thanks," he says dryly.
"Oh! Sorry, I could have phrased that better. I just meant—this is a whole new level of celebrity. You must feel really crowded."
"It would be hard not to with these crowds," he replies wryly. "People are starting to doubt the invention. I told Gippal that they would."
"I knew they would, too. It's Spira's nature. Hopefully they'll accept it soon enough." I offer him a guilty smile. "Can I be annoying and ask you questions, too?"
He sighs, but I think he's teasing. It's hard to tell with Nooj. "I suppose."
"I was just wondering—how does it feel? Not the things, I mean. They feel like body parts. I mean—I know you were feeling—you didn't like feeling like a—machina." Wow, Rikku. Way to sound like a damaged sphere.
He stares at me quizzically. I freeze, wondering if I've really messed up, but a smile spreads slowly across his face. "It feels wonderful," he says. "Thank you for asking. Yuna and Paine are the only other ones that have. I feel like I'm myself, again."
"So no more Deathseeker?" I tease.
"I think there will always be a bit of death-seeking in me," he replies solemnly. "But I wish for it no longer."
"I'm so glad for you!" I exclaim, and it's the truth. "When do they plan to start offering the tech to everyone?"
"Soon, I think. I certainly hope so. I wish this for everyone." His smile grows. I've never seen Nooj this at peace before. I offer my own grin towards Cid and Shinra, who wave at me. So much pride fills me for my friends that I feel like I might explode.
"Yeah, me too. I—"
"Excuse me?" I turn at the unfamiliar voice. The owner is a man dressed in plain fisherman's overalls. His skin is tanned, his hair and eyes brown. He looks like any number of citizens I've met. "Care to play Sphere Break?"
"Uhm, I didn't really come for that," I reply politely. "But if you head to the stadium, I'm sure you'll find plenty of competition."
He makes a face. "I've already been through them. Besides, I heard you did pretty well in the competition last year. I want someone who can really play."
"Oh, well if you want someone who can really play, you should try that boy over there," I say, pointing to Shinra. "He won last year."
He laughs. It's off—nervous, maybe? "I don't think I'm that good, yet. C'mon. One friendly game."
"I—" I look towards Nooj, who shrugs. "I guess I could do one little game, but I don't have any equipment on me."
"I can lend you some." Shinra is off the bench and next to me. "As long as I get to play winner."
I look towards the man. "Does that sound fair?"
He frowns, looking far more annoyed than the prospect of another game should make him if he's played so much already. "Fair enough."
Shinra digs around in a pocket for a moment before producing what I need. "Try not to lose my coins."
"I'll do my best." I accept the equipment, arranging the coins as necessary and letting the sphere do its thing. "Let's play, I guess!"
His rules are tough. There's a forty-five point quota in only fifteen turns, and there are only forty seconds per turn. I'm pretty rusty, so at first I'm definitely floundering, but by the fourth turn I'm building up a steady multiple. By the twelfth, I'm pretty confident that I'll win.
The thirteenth is one that I'm sure I can get in just a few seconds, so I take the opportunity to look up at my opponent. Surprisingly, he's staring right back at me. His face is twisted into an ugly kind of anger, and his face is covered with a sheen of sweat. His eyes burn into me with—hatred. I've never seen hatred so strong. But then he smiles and goes back to his round. Did I imagine it?
I shake it off and play through the last couple of rounds quickly. I cheer as soon as the quota limit hits and informs me that I've won. "Wow, that was fun! It was a close match," I offer to my opponent.
"Yeah." His expression is muted, but there's something in the sheen of his eyes and the angle of his brows. That anger, that hatred. He's furious that I've won. He can't stand me. I can't for the life of me figure out why. I've never seen this man in my life, have I? "Guess I owe you my coins."
"Guess so. Better luck next time!" I chirp. His fists are clenched tightly around the coins, and it's with visible reluctance that he releases them into my open palm.
"You're the one that needs luck, lady." His voice is low, the words spat. With that, he turns sharply on his heel and is gone, stalking off towards the steps that will lead him out of Luca.
"That—that was weird," I stammer. I can't help but feel a little shaken as I look towards Shinra.
"He was quite hostile," Shinra agrees, shaking his head. "Some people are just sore losers, I guess. Speaking of which, I hope you won't be. Ready for our match?"
"Didn't you destroy me enough last year?" I moan.
"You agreed to my proposition," he retorts.
"Yeah, but I didn't think I'd win!" I sigh, knowing I can't win—the argument or the game. "All right. Just let me check out these coins and see if there's anything worth using."
The first few coins are typical fiend-based coins, but the fourth is…weird. In the center is the Al Bhed symbol for the letter D, and it is encircled and crossed out crudely. "Uh. I've never seen this one before, Shinra."
"A rare coin? Let me see!" He moves close to me, and I hold out my hand in offering. "That's not a fiend," he says slowly.
"Well, obviously." I frown. "What is it?"
"Besides a few symbols that I've never seen together before?" He sniffs, wiping at his gas mask with his gloved hand as if that'll do anything. "I don't know. I've honestly never seen it, either."
"Weird."
"Totally weird." He hesitates, and then adds eagerly, "If you give me the coin, I'll let you off the hook. You don't have to play me."
"Hmm." I close my fingers around the coin. There's a weird sort of warmth about it. It almost…pulses? But coins don't pulse. I decide that I don't want to let go of this coin. I don't have a good reason. My instinct, though, is screaming that I need it, that it's important somehow. And as much as my instinct gets me into trouble, it's usually right. "Nah. I think I'm keeping it." I raise a brow at him. "Besides, I feel good all of a sudden. I think I'm on a roll. I just might get you back for crushing me."
He snorts. "Right. Care to make it interesting, if you're so sure you'll win?"
"I'm not betting the coin," I say firmly.
"No, no. I'm talking gil. Winner gets five hundred?"
"Five hundred? Might as well make it a thousand," I reply. Even if I lose, a thousand gil is nothing with all that I've heaped up hunting spheres.
"You're on! I wonder how I'll spend my easily earned winnings."
"Don't count your chocobos before they hatch," I trill. We each set up our boards. The match begins.
It's close, way closer than the angry fisherman's. We work furiously, and when we finish, it's almost simultaneous. Our heads snap up warily to look each other over. Shinra laughs victoriously as soon as the winning jangle sounds off, but the noise quickly turns to a guffaw. Because the winning noise came from me.
"I did it! I beat you!" I smirk at him.
"Maybe the coins I gave you were too good," he mutters. "Anyway, it was just luck. I'm the best."
"Maybe it was luck," I agree. "But that luck just cost you a thousand gil. Fork it over, short stuff!"
"You know, you're almost shorter than I am," he mutters, "and I've got growing left to do." He digs up the money, though, as well as the coins he's lost to me. I beam at him, tucking the lot into my pocket.
"You can get as tall as you want. It won't change the fact that I totally just crushed you."
"Hey, guys!" Buddy calls out, interrupting whatever Shinra was about to say. He and Brother are jogging up the stadium path. They come to a halt, Buddy putting his hands on his knees. "Man, I really need to get off the airship more."
"How's the stadium?" I ask.
"Packed," Brother says, widening his eyes.
"Sphere break's really taking off," Buddy confirms, standing straight. "Looks like you guys played a round, huh? I saw you puttin' stuff away as we ran up."
"I totally kicked his butt!" I crow.
"She just barely beat me," Shinra mutters.
"Wow, beat by Yuna and now Rikku. Your record's looking less and less spotless," Buddy replies, nudging at the boy.
"My wins astronomically outweigh my losses," Shinra retorts. "Anyway, they both just got lucky. Luck seems to run with the Gullwing ladies."
"We just get all the good stuff," I say, sing-song. "Luck, charms, smarts—an unstoppable force!"
"Not that you let it go to your head," Brother says.
"We'd never dream of it. We're very humble, too." I offer him a grin. "What's next on the list of things to do?"
"We could stick around and watch everyone attack poor Nooj some more." Buddy nods towards the man in question. Sometime during the Break battles, the crowd resurfaced.
"Hmm. Could we get some food?" I put a hand to my stomach. "I'm starving!"
"You're always starving," Brother replies.
"I'm pretty hungry, myself," Buddy says with a shrug. "Food sounds good to me."
"Fine, fine," Brother says, raising his head in his most leader-like manner. "We'll get some food."
"Right!" I take a step forward to lead the way, but then stop, cocking my head. Something seems…off. "Uh, guys. Where's Calli?"
Brother and Buddy look at each other, at the area around them, and then at each other again. "Crid!" they shout as one, and then whirl around to rush back down the path.
I roll my eyes. "See you later," I offer to my friends behind me, and then I'm dashing down the path after them.
Some leaders they are!