A/N: Should have posted this a while back, but shout to MangaStoryFan for the cool drawing of Seric (and a watchful Habram) above! As always I recommend his story Supernatural Beings (and The Banished-).

Last chapter, the second game of the Ticket to Dalkan event took place which was a virtual gun-game. Karia and Amandeath especially did quite well, but the rest of the crew did poorly- which made the crew reluctantly agree that they might end up needing to steal the ticket to Dalkan. However, the crew isn't completely giving up yet- since they still have three people who could potentially win them the ticket (Popshot included).

7 hours later...

Popshot's P.O.V.

"Kid! For the hundredth time- twist your damn arm when you throw your punches, it's not that hard." Dad shouts right after my knuckle hits the padded chest of the training-bot I'm sparring with.

"Sorry! I'm dumb, next time I will." I say, and throw another punch right after that, and I DO twist my arm there.

"See!?" I shout with a nervous smile as I turn my head to look at Dad while he's standing next to me with his arms crossed. Him being so tall and muscly (plus his scars) always makes him a bit scary, but I know he loves me. Plus his red hair is soft so I bet he is too when I'm not looking.

Anyways, Dad just shakes his head at my fixed up punch, "My point is that I shouldn't have to remind you to twist it every time though. Also- you're not dumb, who told you that?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Um... you and Mom have before, and the kids in school do it a lot. My teachers also tell me I'm dumb a lot too..." I say, then hold in my breath just in case Dad gets mad at me.

"Ah. Well- I only say that when you're doing something bad that you shouldn't be, AKA being dumb. Don't worry about those idiots in school though- your fists will do the talking when you grow up. Screw math and all that crap, you're going to be a fighting genius just like your old man and make more money than any of those kids when you start competing in the major leagues." Dad says as he gently punches my shoulder, which makes me grin.

"Yeah!" I shout back at him, and swing my head back around to look at the robot so I can start beating it up again.

But huh...

"Hey Dad?" I ask, after thinking a bit more about what he said.

"What?" He says back in a mean tone which makes me flinch.

"Did Mom leave us because of how many dumb things I do?" I ask, and start throwing my punches again right after that- just so he won't be mad at me for "slacking off" I think he calls it.

"The hell are you talking about?" I freeze and stop punching. Dad always tells me to never swear! Last time I did he poured soap into my mouth.

"Sorry. But no, of course not Popshot. Guess I can explain things a bit more now that you're older, 11 is old enough for this I think. Sit, I'll make this quick." Dad says, and so I quickly drop my butt onto the green mat that I've been training on. Dad slowly sits down too, but he groans on the way down for some reason.

"So. Me and your Mom, well we're both something that I guess you could call "adrenaline junkies". It basically means we can't just relax or stay in one place, we've always gotta be doing something and going to new places. Like for example, did either of us ever tell you how we met?" Dad says, and I shake my head to say no.

"We were part of the same tourist group that was planning to dive off of the side of Magthera's volcano." Dad says- and my mouth drops to the floor!

"No way! How the heck did you dodge all the lava?!" I ask as my feet start tapping the floor on their own, I've seen pictures of Magthera in class before and it's HUGE!

"Ha- well, we got a good amount of training beforehand. Plus we had pretty damn good wingsuits that let us glide over the side of the volcano, and they would automatically pull us up if we got too close to the lava we were flying over. Also just in case I wasn't clear, we didn't dive into the volcano by the way- we dived off of the side of it. Got it?" Dad asks.

"Mhm." I say with a nod, even though I really don't understand what he said at all.

"Anyways. Point is, me and your Mom always like doing new things. And that worked for a while as we did a lot of new things together. Made life a lot funner, and for me at least it gave me more of a reason to care about myself." Dad explains, and I butt into his speech-

"Was having me a new thing?" I ask with a titled head.

"Uh. Sure, you could say that. Anyways- having you was a cool surprise I guess, even if it did complicate things a bit for our usual life of always doing whatever new things seemed interesting. I'm sure you remember how often you swapped schools because of how often we were moving to different islands around the Hopian Territory." Dad says, which makes me frown but I still nod.

"I realized all that moving around wasn't healthy for you, so I ended up finding a hobby slash profession that I really loved. You know, so we wouldn't have to move around as much to find new thrills. That hobby was obviously boxing. But your Mom though- she wasn't able to find that one special thing, and still wanted us to travel across the Hopian Territory to find new things to do." Dad says, and I nod again to show him that I'm paying attention.

"At one point I said enough is enough though when your Mom wanted to move near the outskirts of the Hopian Continent to do something crazy but fun. And like you probably overheard us arguing about-"

"'Are you out of your mind, we can't take our kid there- even the teachers near the outskirts are probably drug addicts!' Or something like that you said." I mimic Dad's voice as I point my finger in the air, which makes him smirk- but lightly slap my head. Worth it though since he smiled!

"I don't sound like that. Also don't talk about drug addicts. But yeah, exactly. I wasn't cool with having us live there. I thought I was going to have to fight your Mom in court to keep you safe, but in the end she just... left. Not even a goodbye note or anything, which I'm betting you also remember. She just left in the middle of the night and never came back, because she just couldn't give up the life she used to have." Dad says as he looks down at the floor instead of at me.

"So... did Mom love us? She did, right?" I ask Dad as I scoot closer to him so that I can give him a hug.

"...I shouldn't really speak for her. If you're asking me though, I think she did love us yeah. But she just loved living an exciting life even more." Dad says as he pushes me away, but still scruffles my hair. Oh well, I still count that as a half-hug.

"Oh. That's good. Thanks for the talk, Dad! I feel way better now." I say with a big nod as I jump up from the floor, and get ready to beat up the training bot in front of me again.

"Right. And I don't say this much, since I think it makes guys weaker when they hear it. But uh... I um... never mind, actually. Just know that you're a good kid, Popshot. I'm only strict because I want the best for you, and since school isn't your thing- I want you to be a top-notch fighter so that you can still make a good living that way."

...

"Thanks pops." I mumble after waking up from my dream. Or more like a modified dream, where one of my favorite childhood memories played out in my sleep- thanks to some tech that my captain Adesia got me for my birthday a few years back. Pretty awesome, it's a simple looking visor that you wear over your eyes before you go to bed- and bam. It'll make you dream about random memories that you've got stored in your head.

Enough emotiony-stuff for now though. I take off the visor, then look at the alarm clock that's on the table next to my bed- to see that it's 7:58 AM. I usually don't use alarms since I don't really have a set time I need to wake up at normally, but I did set one for 8AM this time due to how high the stakes are for me here to win in the second half of this "Ticket to Dalkan" event. Could care less about the ticket itself though.

"Alright. Big day today Popshot, and that just means more opportunities to do well enough here to convince the casino to give me Dad back. Already did solid in the first two games yesterday, and I should do even better in the final games today. I've got a good smile as well, so I should do well in the interviews too when I talk with Domino." I think to myself with a smirk as I kick the sheets off of my somewhat-soft bed in the super tiny room I was given as a contestant of this event. Finally I kick myself out of bed so that I can get ready.

On that note I head to the washroom so I can clean myself up, and notice that there's a tear rolling down my cheek.

"What? The heck do I have to cry about, is that from the dream? Adesia has been a great captain AND parent... or guardian ever since she bought me out of here years back. I don't have the right to be mad about the hand I got dealt, could have been way worse. Sure got dealt a sick few hands in those rounds of blackjack yesterday- so hey there's that too." I grin while trying to distract myself, or maybe that was unintentional- hard to tell, my mind goes to random places sometimes.

Anyways I grab the toothbrush Adesia packed me from the washroom counter- and after squeezing some toothpaste onto it, I start brushing as fast as I can. Still see a tear coming out of my left eye though, "...Are these happy tears then? Heh- stupid. The old man gambled MY soul away along with his at that fighting tournament that he "knew he would win". I'd still be stuck as a living soul-battery here with him if Adesia didn't buy me out after he lost. And after all that, I still cry tears of joy when I dream about a jerk like him giving me a simple compliment like being a good kid?"

"Mahn, I chneed more fhriends." I finish off my train of thought- which wasn't the smartest thing to do since my mouth is kinda full of toothpaste right now. But whatever, I spit it out and continue on with getting myself ready.

Me and the other players who have the top 10 scores have our interview with the owner of this horrible place at 10AM, so I need to be looking great by then when I bring up the big question to him. As much as I've had conflicted feelings about my Dad, I still have my reasons for wanting to save him after all.

2 hours later...

"Sheesh- Adesia had good taste in buying the suit but, I really wish she could have picked one out that fit better. ...Then again I didn't really offer to try it on before I got here I guess, so that's on me. Wonder if she and the crew will be watching the interview actually." I think to myself as I'm sitting with the other nine top players in a circle of comfy velvety chairs in a big room with dark red walls. Domino being the host of this event is obviously standing in the middle of us in a fancy purple suit, as his recorder-drone is hovering beside him.

"Alrighty folks, the show's starting in 5! 4! 3! 2! And 1!" Domino snaps, and the lighting around us dims down- leaving a single spotlight pointing down at Domino as the drone hovers in front of his face to broadcast the interview to whatever channel it's airing on.

"Keeeeeekehehehe! My name's Domino Afolabi, and I heartily welcome you viewers and viewettes and everything in between: to 10 at 10! Our behind the scenes interview special that marks the halfway point of Fixed Reality Casino's Ticket to Dalkan event, where we'll be having a chat with this events current top 10 competitors!" Domino says with a crazy amount of enthusiasm, as fake applause plays from a speaker at the side of the room I think.

"Wonder why he didn't just do the interview on a stage with a crowd if he was hoping for live audience reactions. Oh right- he got booed during the first game, so maybe that's why he's doing this in private... agh. I need to focus- right, gotta rehearse what I've planned to say." I think to myself as I zone out for a bit, as Domino starts interviewing the first contestants. Normally I'd want to pay attention to learn a bit about them but, can't afford to.

10 minutes later...

"Next up- we have our sixth highest scoring contestant: Popshot! He may be one of our youngest, but he sure hasn't let that get in the way of going up against the grown ups in the first two games! I mean WOW- standing back up and getting more kills after getting pierced by a chandelier like a sish kabob! What's your secret kid, we gotta know!" Domino says with a laugh as he starts walking towards me- and the recorder drone is pointing at my face now, along with the spotlight that's blaring down at my face.

"Yo! Nice to be here, and thanks for having me. But first off I'm a teenager, not a kid. Big difference, kids whine and aren't allowed to do anything. Teens whine and technically aren't supposed to do a lot of things, but they do 'em anyways." I say while trying to be both polite and funny- which gets a chuckle out of Domino.

"Heh- yeah, I get that. Have my own kid who's approaching those teenage years, and he's already getting moody and all. But back to business- seriously though, what's your secret as to how you did so damn well in the first two games? Any motivations, any tricks you had up your sleeve?"

"I'll leave my motives for second, because mine are pretty big. As for tricks though- well, guess I was always raised to think that practice makes perfect. So I realized that to have a good chance at doing well in this event, I'd need practice. Obviously I didn't know exactly what to practice in advance though since the games were only revealed like right before the event started," I say, then continue after pausing for a sec,

"So I just made some educated guesses, and practiced a whole bunch of stuff that I thought could end up being related to the event. Like I studied up on a bunch of casino-related card games for example, and boom- blackjack ended up being one of the games, which was one of the games I practiced in advance." I say while smiling the whole time, and also make sure to avoid talking about how I knew to practice for the gun-game in advance. Since yeah- Adesia kinda gave me the contact info for one of Fixed Reality's technicians who she met in the past, and as a favor he let me know that one of the event's games that he was working on "involved guns".

Not exactly legal but hey, no one needs to know that.

Anyways, Domino continues the convo, "Ahhh, I see I see- yep that checks out. Must've taken a lot of work to practice so many potential games, I respect that- especially for someone as young as yourself. Time's limited here for us though, and ya seemed to imply that you've got some especially interesting motives for wanting to get your hands on the ticket to Dalkan. So? Mind elaborating for us?" Domino says, and I take a deep breath.

"Remember, he's only human- don't hate him, don't show that you hold anything against him." I remind myself, then start saying the speech I memorized, "Back when I turned 12 years old, my Dad wanted to do something really stupid for my birthday. Or it wasn't really stupid I guess considering he was really skilled, but it was risky. He signed up for a fighting tournament hosted by this Casino-"

"The Millionare Brawl?" Domino interrupts me, and I notice that he isn't smiling anymore. He actually looks a bit nervous... hope he doesn't cut off the interview here if he's worried about looking bad. I've got contingencies in place if he does, though.

"That's the one. And hey, I'm not blaming you for hosting it or anything- everyone knew exactly what they were getting into when they entered into the tournament. Having to live in Fixed Reality Casino as a soul-battery if you did poorly enough was heavily bolded on the contract that everyone signed. My Dad just figured there's no way he'd lose so bad." I say somewhat honestly, and Domino is wincing now.

"Oh jeez... I think I remember you. After hearing that your Dad gambled you along with himself to boost his potential earnings if he won the Millionaire Brawl, I let a nice lady buy you out of here. Even though Fixed Reality's policy is usually to not let any of our precious energy sources go free. Due to how well we take care of them here of course, and I'm not just saying that to try and look good." Domino says with what seems like a mix of honesty and BS- that last bit especially has me digging my fingers into the armrest of my chair, but I still manage to keep my cool.

I let him continue, "I'm sorry for what you went through. Honestly, I should have never held that tournament- our funds were getting tighter back then, and I was desperate for more energy sources. Tried to make the stakes for the Millionare Brawl as clear as possible, and the rewards solid, but still... think I would've done things differently nowadays. Anyways, enough from me. What does that have to do with this event?" Domino asks as he rubs his chin... which leaves me conflicted. I appreciate the apology but- I can't tell how honest he's being... whatever.

"I came here so that I could use my high score to try and convince you to let my old man out of here. Heck, I'd give up the ticket to Dalkan to get him out of this place. I know you've been lenient in the past to make your competitions more interesting, so I figured-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, just a minute. You ain't wrong, I've been lenient with "rewards" given out in the past. But why on earth is the man who tried to gamble your life away your main goal here? Sorry if I'm sounding rude, but I'm a father myself- and I just can't understand how you still care about a guy like that." Domino asks in a serious tone as he leans forward in his chair and stares at me.

"Nah. You're not being rude, I've asked myself the same thing so many times. But after years of thinking about it, I forgave my Dad for being an idiot that one time. Because before that he raised me, gave me a home, gave me food, gave up his relationship with my Mom to keep me safe, gave up his own life of excitement to keep me happy, AND he trained me to become a boxer which has payed off so much in my life." I say, then take a deep breath and continue,

"So yeah. Maybe I am stupid for forgiving him, but whatever. Even if I may not fully like him as a person anymore, I still love him because he's my Dad. That's the only reason I need to want to save him." I say, which came out smoothly since I've been telling people that for years whenever they ask me why I still care about my old man.

And my "speech" makes Domino pause for a second which confuses me, but it starts to make a bit more sense once I see his eyes start to water. "Ah jeez. Ki- I mean Popshot, you're sure an upstanding son. Yeah. You've got a deal. Put on a good show in the next round today, and your Dad will be free to go tonight. Don't even need to win, just... just try your best. Oh boy, didn't expect to start tearing up here." Domino says with a sniffle, which makes me want to tear up as I grin super wide- but I don't want to look like a baby and cry on TV. So I hold it in.

"I'll put on a show alright. Not expecting anything less than first place in a fighting tournament of all things." I say as I turn my grin into a smirk.

"Alright, as inspiring as that was- we've gotta move on to the next contestants." Domino says, and I hold back my excitement by tapping my foot on the floor over and over again. I try to listen to the next contestants too since I can "relax" now, but I get especially interested once Amelia who's in third place as she starts her interview with Domino.

She's trying to make the way she talks different here for some reason, saying "uh" all the time and making her voice higher as well. She seemed to like her privacy the last time we met, so maybe that's why.

Anyways she also mentioned how the last games were easy, and that the other players she went up against were just bad- which I found kinda funny. Most importantly though she also mentioned that she found my motivations inspiring, which is pretty sweet since that puts more pressure on Domino to not pull out of our deal at the last second.

"Hope I won't have to beat you in the next round." I think to myself as I look at her as she finishes up her interview... but I've gotta do what I've gotta do either way. Can always sell her the ticket if I win this whole event anyways.