Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond

John looked around, taking in the atmosphere.

"So this is the ring, huh? Looks about like what I'd expect."

He didn't like it. Granted, it was a pretty good atmosphere for what the place was, but he still disliked it. Similarly, he hated formal parties, house parties, raves, concerts… was he starting to adopt some weird habits along with his age? No way.

"Hm… those are some pretty good fighters."

Just like Destiny before him, he'd quickly come to the conclusion that the fighters in the ring were of a high calibre. Maybe not the highest calibre—people like Lupin, Albert, and Jinae still outclassed them by a mile. Hell, even adventurers like Grey and Hestia would probably pull ahead.

But those were [Characters] who were meant to be powerhouses. People who were meant to show up near the end of the story and show off their power to let the [Protagonist] shine. Right now, they weren't quite at that stage. And so, given that, these fighters were pretty damn good.

"John," Prota said nervously.

That was all she had to say, but he got the message.

"Don't worry. I'm not going in there."

She turned to stare at him. Seriously? Was this the John she knew?

"I make it a habit not to underestimate anybody I can't gauge," he explained, sighing as he leaned against the wall. "People like the students I beat up? That's whatever. Fighters in a place like this? You never know when someone might be a potential [Antagonist] or [Companion]."

Prota nodded as she continued to watch the fights.

"That's how a lot of [Side Characters] get their shit rocked, you know. Underestimating the [Protagonist]. I don't want that to happen to me. Me, personally, I'd never voluntarily fuck up like that."

Still, she continued to watch silently, analyzing the style of each and every fighter. They were scarily similar to her own.

"So. What do you think? Think you can win?" he said quietly.

Her eyes went wide. It was as if he'd read her mind. Well, she hadn't been hiding her thoughts or anything.

Yeah. That was right. She'd been watching, not to try to copy a style or feel threatened.

She was watching to determine whether or not she would win.

A fire had been set ablaze in her heart. A burning passion to fight, to grab victory by the throat and take it for herself. There was something on the line, for sure, but in the end, it didn't matter what that thing was or how important it would be for the future. Right now, she had strong opponents in front of her, opponents she alone could take on.

This wasn't the Town of Beginnings. This wasn't Doctor. These weren't the cultists or Sofya. These were just strong people she could fight.

"Nn."

She wanted to win.

"Alright. Sounds good. Let's come back tomorrow," John nodded, turning to leave.

Prota flinched. What? Not now? What was going on?

"I still need more money, remember? Look, I'm sure the odds will be stacked against you. But you're not gonna be such a sensation that over a thousand gold coins of money are going to be bet on your match. I know how to act, but you don't. You won't get enough people riled up, and that's fine. But that also means I need to be winning a little more money."

She nodded, but inside, she was growing impatient. How amusing. This time, she was the hothead, and John was the cool, rational one. The roles had been reversed.

But maybe that wasn't so bad.

~~~

A few days later, Destiny received quite a shock.

"What the- what's he doing here?"

John was dressed in strange clothes. Gone was the usual hoodie scarf combo. He was now dressed in something far more respectable, although it still felt off, to the point that Destiny almost wouldn't have recognized him. The only thing that made him stand out was the fact that his hair was still messy, as if he'd woken up and hadn't bothered to clean up.

Destiny knew John was in the casino. But being in this establishment meant you had to spend a ridiculous amount of money, and anybody who'd spent that much was either a noble or someone with ties to the Yakuza.

John was a cheapskate. And now he was here?

No, that wasn't the question he should be asking. What in the world did he intend to do here? Fight? No way. While John was the kind of guy to pick fights, he was also well aware of how weak he was. He could be stupid, but he wasn't that stupid. Then what? Send Prota in to fight? That was definitely possible. But for what?

Thankfully, his sister never actually showed up, as far as he could tell. It was just John, standing in a remote area, sipping at some kind of drink while he watched the fighters go at it.

"See anything rowdy going on?"

Destiny almost jumped as one of his superiors came up from behind.

"No. Nothing yet."

"Good, good. It don't usually happen. Better if it doesn't. After all, fights we don't need to take are best."

"I see."

The man laughed, patting Destiny on the back before sauntering off to who knows where. He didn't care. His focus went back to John, fully intending on deciphering his true intentions.

It wasn't that he was worried for John. At this point, his lack of fighting capabilities was no longer a true concern. Yes, everybody would always be worried that the manaless man would get caught up in something he couldn't handle, but time and time again, he'd proven that he was resourceful enough to survive. Moreover, his sister insisted on sticking to him like glue, and she was more than enough of a fighting force to handle any problematic situations they might encounter.

So no, Destiny wasn't worried that John would get himself into trouble. He was worried about whether or not John planned on getting others into trouble. Destiny could win in a straightforward fight, yes, but while he was capable of winning the battle, he doubted he could win the war.

John's intuition was something Destiny had yet to understand, and he wasn't sure he had the means to go against it. The worst-case scenario was that the Yakuza had already recruited him. Even if that wasn't the case, it was possible that whatever he had planned would interfere with Destiny's mission, and that was just as bad.

Should he just approach John and ask him? No. That was probably the worst thing he could do at the moment. If they were working toward the same goal, then going to John would do nothing. However, if John was in fact working against him, then this would only tip him off.

He wasn't sure if John's intuition was some kind of premonition or future telling, but if it was simply deduction, then it was best to feed him as little information as possible. Right now, Destiny was holding more cards, and there was no need to show any of them until absolutely necessary.

He just had to wait.

~~~

The only reason John was dressed somewhat presentably was that too many staff members had asked him if he intended to fight. Well, it made sense. He'd been dressed in rags compared to everyone else. He grumbled about this to an unseen figure.

Destiny would've been surprised to find out that Prota was, in fact, among the crowd. She was just hidden behind a pillar, something John hadn't planned for, but then again, he didn't know the half-elf was present.

"What do you think? Can you take them?" he said quietly.

The odds of winning over a thousand gold coins were pretty good. He'd gathered a good amount of cash, and even a six-to-one odds would put him over. He'd been watching a ton of fights and had gathered a lot of data. The statistics course he'd taken back on Earth was coming in handy, but he'd never thought it would help in this kind of way.

He took in all kinds of variables. Win rates, number of betters, time of day, gender, race, and more, all thrown into a spreadsheet in his system. Judging from how it went, Prota was definitely set up to help their plan go through. It was a good thing, too, because they had less than a week to pull off their plan.

The only problem was that her first fight couldn't be a win. Too many people in this crowd enjoyed the rush of betting against the odds. No matter how weak a fighter looked, there would always be those who would bet on them, regardless of how risky it might seem. However, if a fighter had a couple of losses, even the most adventurous gamblers would know that it was a lost cause.

Now, Prota was completely capable of throwing a few fights. The issue was the rules, or, rather, the lack of them. Anything was allowed. Dirty fighting, maiming, hidden weapons, even killing, although you'd be booed off stage if you did it for a stupid reason. John didn't feel very comfortable sending Prota into a fight like that.

"Nn… I need to lose, right?"

He pressed his lips together.

"Yeah. Yeah, that would be the best case scenario. But-"

"It's ok."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Prota remained out of sight, but John knew what kind of expression was on her face at the moment.

It was blank, as always.

"It's not ok. Do you see the shit going on in there?"

"John."

He sighed. He really didn't like this idea, but at the same time, he wasn't sure if she would give up. He started sifting through his data, trying to figure out who killed, who maimed, who let their opponent go on tap out… yeah, it was possible to try and fix some matches. But he didn't want to send her in, not like this.

"Tomorrow. No, not tomorrow. A few days. We'll try it in a few days."

~~~

"You want me to make what?" Briar frowned.

"Just some protective gear," John explained. "It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just maybe, um… some shoulder guards, leg guards, something like that."

"I mean… I guess I could," Briar shrugged. "But what do you need that stuff for? There's tons of armour sets you guys can use, no?"

"It needs to fit underneath clothing. Something thin, you know? Just enough to stop a couple of attacks."

"Alright, chief," the blacksmith nodded. "I'll need to take your measurements, though."

John flinched. "Oh. Not for me."

"What, for Prota? What have you guys been doing, anyway? First it was Destiny, now it's you. Why do you guys keep missing class? Your sister's not usually one to skip, right?"

"What about me?" John said, pointing to himself.

"You miss half your classes anyway."

"Pot calling the kettle black over here," John scoffed. "As if you don't skip classes regularly."

"Hey!" Briar protested, but she didn't deny it. "Look, they're… they're just a little boring, ok?"

John just smiled. "I'll be back to pick up the stuff."

She just stuck her tongue out in response, but she would do a good job of making the gear. She was as carefree as he was, but unlike him, she did a thorough job in whatever she set her mind to. Well, it wasn't like John had a burning passion for anything. Some days, he wished he did, but ultimately, there was no point in having a goal he'd never be able to achieve.

With that taken care of, he walked over to the engineering building, where Danjo was working on some kind of project. He'd recently learned how to sew and patch and was now working on incorporating more versatile ingredients in his projects. John hadn't known sewing resulted in flames and explosions, though. The dwarf's protective mask would occasionally reflect bursts of light, and heavy gloves covered his hands as they worked on whatever was in front of him.

"John!" he said, surprised to see his friend. "You don't come around here often. What's up?"

"Got time to work on something small?"

Danjo raised his mask and took his gloves off. John glanced at what he'd been working on. It seemed like some kind of magic circuit, if those existed in this world. Interestingly, they were being crafted on leather, not metal, but he wasn't curious enough to ask about it.

"Depends. What do you need?" Danjo said hesitantly.

"How viable is, say, teleportation?"

Danjo glanced off to the side, visibly uncomfortable. Well, that was more than enough of an answer.

"Ok. Don't worry about it," John said, turning around to leave.

"Wait! What do you need it for?"

"Do you know about the safety devices we used during our exams?"

"The insta-transportation charms? John, those were personally made by our professor. If you want something of that calibre-"

"No, no," he laughed. "Nothing like that. Well… um. Something like that. Would it be possible to make something that could teleport you to a random location? Can be automatic, can be manual, just… you know, it would teleport you."

Danjo shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Making a transportation-based magic circle is easy enough, from what I've heard. You said something about random locations, right? That's not possible."

"What? Why not?"

"Well, sorry. It's possible. But it's risky. You could clip your leg into a wall, or your head might phase into the floor. With no control, it's very easy to have a serious injury occur. It's why we don't mess around with spatial magic."

John nodded slowly. "Yeah, fair enough. Thanks, though. Do you know where I could get one?"

"You can't," Danjo said, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's a pretty high-tier magical device. What do you need this for, anyway?"

"Just… you know, if someone were to get in trouble during a fight."

The dwarf raised an eyebrow. "You?"

"No, no."

"Hm… I suppose an invisibility charm would do a similar job, then, no?"

John raised his eyes in surprise. "A what?"

Danjo motioned to follow, and he went over to a somewhat messy corner of the room, where all sorts of failed projects of various students lay, ready to be recycled into new materials.

"Something like this."

He tapped on a deformed chestplate with all sorts of engravings on it. It shimmered, then vanished, only to reappear a second later.

"I tried to put invisibility on a chestplate, but like you can see, I kinda… messed it up. The materials were difficult to handle, and I accidentally damaged some of the circuits. But if you were to put it on something like cloth…"

John nodded slowly, his mind spinning. He crouched down and knocked on the armour, watching as it blinked in and out of vision once more.

"Yeah. What would you need?"

"Nothing. I would just need Aurora to write up a magic circle design for me… I think she knows how. Otherwise, I could get it to you in a couple of days."

They got up and started heading out of the room.

"You guys getting along well, by the way?"

"What?"

"You know. You guys. Uhh… Briar, Arthur, Aurora. Celeste, too. You know?"

Danjo shuffled awkwardly. "I mean, I hope so."

"You hope?"

The dwarf rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"You know, sometimes I think they're just getting along with me out of pity. I know you and Destiny since, you know… that whole mess, but I just don't get why everyone is so friendly to me."

John sighed, then slapped the back of Danjo's head.

"Does there have to be a reason to get along? They like you, Danjo. You like them, right?"

"Y-yeah, of course!"

"Why?"

Danjo went silent as he realized he didn't know the answer to that question.

"Exactly. You're not in the Town of Beginnings anymore, dude. You don't need to put yourself down all the time."

"T-thanks, John," Danjo stammered, surprised.

Was this really the same person he'd met over a year ago? Back then, there'd been something off about him. He'd always been a little scary to Danjo, and while he seemed interested in his artificing, it'd always seemed somewhat… forced. But now, he was feeling a bit of genuine warmth in his words.

"Alright. I'll be back in a couple of days to pick up the stuff. Don't worry if you can't get it done, by the way," he said, waving him off. "It's just a favour."

"No. I'll do it. Don't worry."

John smiled, closing his eyes. It seemed that everyone but him was growing.

"Yeah. Thanks, Danjo."

~~~

A few days later, as promised, they returned to hit the casino once more. First, though, John thought he'd let the old man know how things were coming along. It was only fair to update the one who was pressed for time.

John knocked on the door to the small wooden hut, expecting the old dwarf, but was surprised when he instead ran into a familiar face.

"Briar? What are you doing here?" he frowned.

"Uh- family stuff," she said awkwardly. "And- hey, shouldn't I be the one asking you that? What's up with you visiting the old man?"

"...family stuff?" John said awkwardly.

Even without Prota's piercing glare, he knew that was a stupid answer. Well, stupid lies sometimes worked best.

"I'm not gonna question it," Briar said, shaking her head. "But now's not a good time to visit."

"Now's actually a great time to visit," John said, eyes wandering aimlessly as he tried to avoid looking at the girl who'd answered the door. "Come on, I just need to talk to your grandpa for a sec."

"Does this have something to do with that armour you made me? Danjo approached me and asked for some metal to work with. Said you asked him for some kind of invisibility equipment. We even got Aurora involved. Arthur, too. He helped synthesize some materials." She raised an eyebrow. "What's going on, John?"

"I can't say," he sighed, shaking his head. "Just let me talk to mister blacksmith, ok?"

"...fine. We're busy, though, so if he says no, that's that."

"Thanks."

John let out a long breath. Thank goodness Briar wasn't questioning this more than necessary. Soon, Zuko shuffled over to the front door, hands clasped behind his back.

"Ah. You're here."

"...yeah? What, did you think we were just gonna leave you hanging?"

"Ah, no, it is merely… come in. Actually, it may be better if we go out."

John pressed his lips together. Great, more unseen variables. Just what he needed. Well, it wouldn't be much of a [Story] if everything just went according to plan, right?

"Alright. I'll wait for you to get ready. Prota, you stay here with Briar, ok?"

She nodded. If John was just going out for a talk, she wasn't needed, and she trusted that the presence of Zuko would stop John from doing anything overly idiotic. She walked into the house, making sure to take off her shoes before sitting in front of the table, where a plate of fruit had been set out.

"Let's go," Zuko said, now dressed in a thicker robe.

They went back to the location they'd first used. The same drinks were ordered. They remained silent the whole time, but John felt that the old man needed some time to gather his thoughts.

"They came yesterday," Zuko said quietly.

"What?"

John's eyes widened. Ah. Had they already taken whatever collateral the old man had?

"They pushed the repayment date to tomorrow. If I do not meet their demands…"

John breathed a sigh of relief. There was still a little room to mess around. As long as they finished things up today, his plan would still work.

"I must thank you, child. I appreciate your help. But ultimately, this is a matter I must take into my own hands."

"Again with that," John grumbled. "Look, you don't need to go and give up. Never give up never what?"

"...what?" Zuko frowned.

"Never mind. What I'm saying is, it's not over 'till it's over, right? We play until we win."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" John looked around, but there wasn't anyone else in the store. "I mean, I'll get you your money."

Zuko stared at the boy in front of him with trembling eyes. In just the last week, a series of unbelievable events had occurred. A child had approached him, offered to repay his debt of a thousand gold coins, had entered the casino, and was now telling him he could repay the debt?

"You- you are serious," the dwarf stammered. "You mean what you say."

"Yeah? I've never lied in my life," John said, lying.

"How? How does someone as young as you do it?"

"Um…"

John hesitated. What in the world was he supposed to say? That he gambled his way to riches? Even if it was true, to any sane person, it would just seem like he'd risked everything on chance. That was, of course, mostly false, but there was no way to explain his strategy without opening an entirely different can of worms.

"No. I have no need to question my benefactor's methods."

John let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Thank heavens the old man was sensible. On the other hand, this made John a little nervous. He wanted to get the money. Not just because it was something that he'd promised, but because he thought that he'd feel a little guilty if he didn't. This dwarf desperately wanted to be able to repay the debt. He didn't show it, but the way he was on edge, the way his eyes shifted, his stiff voice and choppy sentences, they were indication enough.

"But why? Why do you do this for me? Even if Briar is your friend, why go so far?"

A face flashed through John's mind. He couldn't tell Zuko the reason. He couldn't tell anybody the reason. Only Prota could keep his secret.

"Don't worry about it. Just think of it as a Good Samaritan act or something."

"A what?"

John ignored the question. "By the way, I can't promise you anything. I hope you realize that."

"Yes. I know. I am not so naive that I would count my chickens before they hatch. But you have done something wonderful. You have given me hope, however slim it may be."

John grimaced, averting his gaze. "Don't. Don't do that."

"What?"

"Hope. Just pretend nothing is happening for now, and if the money comes, then… well, it'll come."

John was looking away, so he jumped a little in his seat when Zuko grabbed his hand.

"Young man. Hope is never a bad thing. Hope is what allows us to persevere. To make it through even the toughest of situations. Without hope, there is nothing."

"...sure. Ok."

"You may not see it now. But as you grow older, you will realize I am telling the truth. A sliver is more than nothing. And more than nothing is something."

John didn't respond. Zuko simply sighed, shaking his head.

"There is one more thing I must tell you."

"Huh?" John's head turned back. "What's that?"

"The Yakuza. There is something I must tell you."

"Is it that important? If you're going to tell me that I'm in danger, I already know," John said, getting ready to leave.

"No, no. It is something else. This may take a little while."

John grimaced again. Great, more complications. He sat back down, taking a deep breath.

"Sure. Go ahead."

~~~

Back at the little hut, Briar was trying to pry information out of Prota, with little luck.

"Hey, Prota. I know you're not the most talkative person, but, c'mon, please? Just a hint. What did John need the invisibility gear for?"

Prota shuffled around awkwardly. She was fully aware that she wasn't a very convincing liar. While she was alright with speaking a few words to someone as close as Briar, she didn't for fear of saying something she shouldn't.

"Um… well, just, if it was for you, keep in mind that it might not work. We were kinda rushed, after all. I mean, I trust Danjo's capabilities, but-"

They were interrupted by the sound of knocking on the door.

"...are you expecting anybody?" Briar said quietly, looking at the door.

Prota shook her head. Why would she be expecting somebody in a house that wasn't her's?

"Gramps never forgets his keys. Something's a little strange about this."

Suddenly, a boom shook the door, and it went flying off its hinges. Sunlight poured into the room, and five dwarves in suits barged into the room.

"Briar Wren," one of the dwarves announced, pointing a sword at her. "You are to come with us immediately."