Kentarō crashed into the floor below.
Hard.
"OW."
He slowly stood up.
Rows of slot machines surrounded him.
Poker tables.
Roulette wheels.
Bright lights.
And above everything.
A giant sign.
FORTUNATO.
Kentarō stared upward.
"...This is his base?"
A voice answered.
"Technically, one of them."
Kentarō spun around.
Boone stood behind him.
Smiling.
"Hey buddy."
"DAMN YOU!"
Boone sat at a poker table.
"Question."
"No."
"You didn't even hear it."
"Still no."
Boone sighed.
"You seem like the gambling type."
Kentarō shrugged.
"Yeah."
Boone immediately stood up and kicked him.
"Wrong answer."
"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!"
Boone laughed.
Then sat back down.
For the first time, Kentarō stopped yelling.
"I don't care about your bounty."
Boone raised an eyebrow.
"I don't care about gambling."
Another eyebrow.
"I don't care about whatever weird thing you've got going on."
Boone nodded.
"Fair."
Kentarō pointed a dagger at him.
"Tell me how you know about the Haven of Six."
Boone blinked.
Then shrugged.
"Lucky guess."
Silence.
"...What?"
"Lucky guess."
"You guessed my name?"
"Yep."
"You guessed the Haven?"
"Yep."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
Kentarō stared at him.
Then sighed.
"You're the most annoying person I've ever met."
"Thank you."
Boone smiled.
Then suddenly his expression became serious.
"You know your problem?"
Kentarō crossed his arms.
"I have several."
"You attack whatever is in front of you."
"...And?"
"Watch."
Boone disappeared.
Without thinking, Kentarō lunged.
His daggers flashed.
Wood shattered.
Clothes tore apart.
The target collapsed.
Silence.
Kentarō blinked.
"...What?"
A mannequin's head rolled across the floor.
A speaker crackled overhead.
"That's a mannequin, dummy."
Silence.
"No."
Another speaker activated.
"That's a mannequin, dummy."
A third speaker.
"That's a mannequin, dummy."
Kentarō grabbed his head.
"I'M GOING TO LOSE MY MIND."
Meanwhile, upstairs, Boone sat comfortably at a poker table.
A guard approached him.
"Sir, should we stop him?"
Boone laughed.
"No."
"Why not?"
Boone glanced toward the floor.
"He's entertaining."
Back underground.
Kentarō finally destroyed another speaker.
"BOONE!"
A final speaker activated.
"What?"
Kentarō pointed upward.
"I swear, when I find you-"
Then he stopped.
A thought crossed his mind.
"Bellerophon was less annoying than you."
Silence.
The speaker didn't respond.
Kentarō blinked.
"...Boone?"
Nothing.
Then:
"Who?"
Kentarō froze.
"What?"
"Who is Bellerophon?"
The smile vanished from Kentarō's face.
The joke was gone.
"Not funny."
"I'm serious."
"The Heart of Conquest."
"Nope."
"The guy that almost destroyed the world."
"...What?"
Kentarō stared at the speaker.
A strange feeling crept up his spine.
"You seriously don't know?"
"No."
For the first time since entering the casino...
Kentarō wasn't angry.
He was confused.
Because Boone wasn't joking.
And somehow...
That scared him more.