Dice

As she slipped past the vibrant neon-lit casino floors, Mesmerizing spirals and the endless clicking of spinning roulette wheels were all that Natia could hear. Customers were enthralled by the addictive melody of the Meister's lined-up slot machines, pumping casino coins in and out repetitively. Groups of casino fanatics huddled in circles tackled several casino activities, such as poker, blackjack, roulette, billiards, mahjong, and darts. Bright cheers from people celebrating their wins and earnings were all that Natia could hear as she passed by the people, struggling to find intel based on the mission objective.

The chaos in the casino only grew worse when patrons approached Natia inviting her to play casino games, and handing out free tokens to wrap her in the addiction. Each time Natia rejected someone, she grew irritated that she was getting nothing related to the mission.

The communicator on her nanosuit beeped in her ear; she swiftly activated it with the push of a button. "Hey, did you find anything yet?" She asked Ryo through the communicator, drowning out the white noise from the unnecessary chatter.

"I ran into some trouble, and we probably don't have a lot of time." Ryo's voice rang through.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Natia was even more irritated. "What the hell happened? What happened to communicate before making a move?"

"It's a little complicated," Ryo said. "I would have been even more suspicious if I was talking to you through here at the moment on the dance floor."

"Dance floor-" Natia could not believe what she was hearing. "What the fuck are you doing on the dance floor?!" She hissed in a low whisper to prevent others from witnessing her bitter aggression.

"It's not what you're thinking," Ryo replied. "I grabbed a VIP pass from one of the guests."

"You did?" Natia said. "Where are you right now?"

"I snuck into one of the backrooms. There are tons of guards on patrol back here. I'm going to try and access the duct system to see if I can access the security cameras. That'll probably give us a clue if there's a camera near the Jester's room." Ryo explained.

"What do you want me to do?" Natia asked.

"Ah... well, if any chance I pass by the casino through the ducts I might need a distraction," Ryo explained. "Are you good at creating distractions?"

Natia surveyed the expansive casino area and her confidence grew weary. She swallowed nervously and placed her finger on her communicator. "Time for us to find out, I guess," She whispered. "I'm cutting communication until then. Don't call until you need me-"

"Excuse me, madam," A sharp-looking slick-back-haired man approached Natia with a perky attitude and lifted his arm towards his chest like a casino patron. He interrupted Natia's communication. Little did she know that she failed to deactivate her communicator, so Ryo could hear everything on her end. "I couldn't help but notice how your beauty radiates even brighter than this majestic cornerstone. I must ask, what is your name?"

"Uh," Natia's eyebrows dipped down in even more irritation that someone approached her, a random stranger with an unknown intention. What was even more difficult was the fact that Natia was unprepared with inventing an alias on the spot. The first name that she could think of was someone significant to her. "Jurisa." She falsely introduced herself.

Jurisa? Ryo was mildly confused about the name that she had chosen for her quick alias. He expected her to select an ordinary name, but perhaps her genius made her select an uncommon name to stay in disguise.

"Oh, Jurisa," The man introduced with a slight bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I thought you were scared of me the first time you laid eyes on me. Why don't you follow me to one of the roulette tables and I'll introduce you around?"

"F-Fine..." Natia replied, trailing the man to the roulette table. She held in her irritation by the second, using him only for intel purposes if possible.

Natia followed the sharp-looking man to a roulette table filled with guests from an older generation. Adorned with rich and royal clothing, their faces were masqueraded with jeweled vintage and antique masquerade masks to shroud their true identities. A short and fat guest covered in other jewelry wrapped around his neck and fingers greeted the sharp-looking man while holding a premium cigar in his mouth.

"Oh, Mr. Eve," The fat man's nasally voice called. His eyes goggled Natia's slender and thick body up and down pervertedly. "You finally found yourself a partner to play roulette with! And judging by the color of her skin, she isn't from here."

From that comment alone, Natia was extremely close to releasing her inner rage. How she would go about doing so was incomprehensible. She remained silent, knowing that unbridled rage would blow her cover.

"Are you so observant about such unnecessary details that you would go to such lengths to embarrass my guest?" Eve fought back for Natia. "Or are you just self-conscious about your pompous attitude and stature that you find it amusing to do such a thing to such a beautiful woman?"

"Why, you... how dare you!" The fat man hissed, throwing his cigar on the floor. "You dare insult me? I'll have the Jester know-"

"The Jester is on my side," Eve replied, impishly smirking at him with malice. "Any complaint that goes to her immediately comes to me. If you were planning on defaming and ruining my musical career because of a single careless comment, you are certainly welcome to try. But we all know what the Jester will do once she finds you guilty of targeting a member of Polycyclone Industries."

The fat man whimpered, turning to his associates for assistance. However, no one had the stomach to back him up. He scoffed and turned around. "We'll see about that," He said before leaving the roulette table. "You will regret this."

"My apologies," Eve said to Natia. "Such an uncouth individual should not be fit to be in your presence. Your beauty shall not be insulted."

"It's fine, really..." Natia said, surprised that he defended her despite them being strangers. "That guy was annoying me anyway."

"He does tend to do that," Eve agreed. "My mistake. I had no idea that he would be so petty at a time like this. He must have been very upset that he had lost earlier tonight. But anyone who would dare manifest their anger on another like this only enrages me further."

"You said that you were in the music industry?" Natia asked. "Do you sing?"

"You're very observant, I'll give you that, Jurisa," Eve replied with a smile. "I do sing. My stage name is Dynasteve, and I travel across all of Aries bringing joy in the form of music to all. I was named after the birth of the universe and the great legacy that it brings to all."

Dynasteve... I know him, Ryo thought. Natia's communicator was still on. The first time that he had met April in Claude's jazz club was the first time he had bumped into him at the bar with Sumire. He was the first person to sing before April, and he stated the same motto to him, Sumire, and April. What's he doing here?

Eve rotated his head sideways, noticing something peculiar about Natia. "Forgive me for interrupting, Jurisa. But you have something in your ear. May I take it off of your-"

"Oh, no," Natia quickly pushed herself back, cupping her ear with her palm. "It's a listening device. I was talking to one of my colleagues a few minutes ago, wondering where they were. I don't think they're here yet, so I have some time to kill." She lied.

"Ah, I see," Eve said, turning back to the roulette table and tossing a pair of dice during his turn of the game. But he had not been paying attention to the game at all. He was enthralled with Natia's beauty. "Sorry to intrude, but I was curious about something. May I... ask a question?" He proposed.

"Okay. Ask away." Natia replied, tensing up.

"My question is, why would you choose this place out of all places to kill time?" Eve asked. "There must be a reason, correct? What is it about this place that fascinates you?"

Natia seamlessly integrated another lie without the need to think deeply. "Well, I heard that the Jester would be here tonight," She stated, cupping her hands together. "The Jester is a very famous person, almost inspirational, to be fair. I was hoping that I would be one of the lucky ones to see her in person for myself. I'm... a little out of the weather recently. I haven't been able to..."

"Haven't been able to what?" Eve asked after noticing Natia's long pause.

Her eyes stated that she no longer wanted to lie. She truly wanted to find the answer. "Haven't been able to let my past go." She honestly admitted.

"The past?" Eve asked. "Why would someone like you want to escape the past?"

Ryo stopped moving through the duct system and listened to Natia carefully on the communicator. He knew that bringing up Natia's past wasn't particularly the best conversation starter, yet Eve continued exhorting her to tell the tale herself. He continued crawling through the duct outside of the nightclub region toward the casino region of the Meister's Casino.

"It hasn't been easy for me," Natia said, detaching herself from the rest of the group. Eve approached her with concerned eyes. "One of my friends told me that I needed to be hopeful, and another told me to let go. When I think about it, I don't even know what to do anymore. I guess my goal right now is to understand what to do with myself and my past."

"And why would someone... who is trying to understand the past... stumble upon this casino by random chance... seeking to find the Jester?" Eve continued pressuring.

Natia's face appeared dreary, sensing herself caught in her web of lies. Even though she did lie at the beginning of their trivial conversation, she knew her last comments were the complete opposite.

"No, I'm just messing around with you," Eve chuckled, patting Natia's bare shoulder. "Well, the correct answer is obviously simple. Who wouldn't want to visit the Meister's Casino from time to time? This place is absolutely marvelous! And the Jester's presence definitely does lighten up the mood!"

"Yeah..." Natia's uncertainty about the past continued to strangle her from the inside. She desperately sought a clear answer with a correct path of action, but she could not withstand the idea of returning to her home country to face the destruction alone. She needed support, yet she would not admit it.

"But honestly, in my years of meeting guests at the Meister's Casino, I've never met anyone as beautiful as you," Eve continued. "Each time I find someone wanting to play-"

While Eve continued to hail Natia with compliments about her physique and stature, a mildly loud screech played through Natia's communicator, creating a shrill feedback sound deep within her eardrum. Knowing that the sound would never play without someone's communicator in the same room, Natia knew that Ryo was nearby. Her eyes moved diagonally, scanning her perimeter for Ryo's position. From the top of her upper eyelid, she spotted Ryo on top of a metal grid high above the ceiling, leaping from chandelier to chandelier.

"-and it just keeps getting better," Eve continued. "One of these days, I would love to make a legacy of my own. My offspring will know-"

Natia nodded, pretending to listen to Eve as she lifted her head into the air. She made direct eye contact with Ryo and deactivated her communicator as soon as she realized there was feedback. Ryo nodded at her and signaled a circular motion with his hands. After studying closely to his mouth, Ryo verbalized and mouthed the word "diversion."

In an instant, Natia pretended to faint. She closed her eyes and wobbled her body from side to side. She slumped backward in the hopes that no one would catch her. Instead, Eve caught her from her shoulder and leaned down on the carpet. The guests at the roulette table watched her fall, and they rushed over to assist her.

"Jurisa? Jurisa! Are you okay? What's wrong?" Eve called.

Natia purposefully rolled her eyes back, feinting a faint. She whispered, hoping to use her acting skills to trick them successfully. At the same time, Ryo calculated a leap toward another chandelier and successfully landed across from it. Before the mission, he had been overly nervous about the mission objective, but after the time crunch, he tried his best to not jeopardize Natia and her position.

With one final leap, Ryo latched onto the opposite metal grid and entered through one final duct into the control room.

I have so many questions for her, Ryo thought. Who is Jurisa, and what's really going on with you?