Chapter 13: Life is a Gamble

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"Twenty says Claw Machine-chan will fuck you up."

"Better get ready to pay up then."

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That repetitive background tune drowned out the silence and Levi's occasional swearing as I tracked that ugly, skinned human thing succumb to the force of gravity once again. It bounced once. And again. Landing with its disapproving frown leaning against the glass on the other side. Bringing itself closer to us, taunting us.

"Levi, I'm actually concerned by how much it looks like you. You both look like you've sucked on a lemon."

"Brat, your chatter isn't helping."

"That's the point."

He grunted in response, surrendering yet another penny for another chance.

I never thought I'd say this, but I think time is finally on my side as I watched the numbers inevitably creep closer to the deadline.

"I'm gonna go buy your favourite mop and break it in front of you with those ten dollars." I contemplated aloud, my shoulder lightly brushing against the wall as my rag-like frame propped against it.

The wind whistled a weak tune that paled in comparison to Levi's losing fanfare from the claw machine. At least Levi gets mocking backup singers with every failure, so he can truly savour his losses. I was starting to grow a liking for claw machine-chan.

"Do you want me to do a 10 second countdown like in MasterChef?" I asked ironically, and by the sound of his light growl, he probably isn't going to appreciate it.

My visual field followed him like a killer, entertained, as the boy stepped back from the flashy machine. Finally, he had accepted his fate. Silver rays were cast and washed him out, throwing the long shadow lingering helplessly behind his frame harshly onto the ground.

"You're about done..." I slipped my phone back into a back pocket and advanced back towards the duel between the naïve boy and a calculative contraption, "A for effort, huh?"

Within the instant, I caught the overcast image of a twitch in the hand by his side. Horror bubbled in the pit of my stomach along with my barely-edible lunch as I realised what the piece of shit was going to do.

"Hey, hey, hey! You wouldn't dare! No cheating, you-"

CRACK!!

Miniature glass cubes splintered through the air like snow. I watched the ghost of twenty dollars ascend from my wallet behind my arm across my face as Levi recklessly hurled his foot through claw machine-chan. In front of us was left a beautiful web of shattered tempered glass. Nettings that curled and twisted and emptied into a void of a huge hole right in the middle of the pane. Like the dome of the sky that was collapsing, caving in. Now that's some gorgeous evidence of vandalism.

The ground was scanned for blood, for an amputated foot, for a screaming innocent boy who overestimated himself. Instead, a scowling embroidered face was thrown at me, landing delicately in my arms. I acknowledged it in shock. It returned a judgemental frown. Given what had just happened, it had all the reason to look as grumpy as it did.

A little tag at the back identified it as a Titan plushie.

Now, tell me, what the FUCK is a Titan? At least it was little and adorably cranky.

"Are you fucking mental?!" I squeaked at his slender figure waltzing coolly to me.

"Told you I'd get it. Now you can have all your filthy wet dreams with it." He casually brushed off some glass that dusted his shoulders as if it were snowfall. The dipshit got so fucking lucky that he didn't turn into a pincushion for glass shards.

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