Shitty Luck

Ryuki wanted to break down sobbing. He came to Unova in the hopes of finally making something of himself, finally having an actual purpose in life- but it just didn’t seem to be working.

He, for one, hadn’t made it big yet. He’d occasionally get a gig with a few people, but nothing enough to get him out there. Most of the time, he was working part time or busking on street corners.

Which he couldn’t even do anymore, because someone had taken it upon themselves to steal his guitar in the two minutes he’d left it unattended.

He desperately ran around the streets of Virbank City, hoping that he could spot the thief, but he knew that his chances were realistically slim. As he was thinking of his next steps, he promptly tripped on his own feet and slammed into the asphalt of the street.

He took a moment to process what had happened, another to process that he was in pain, and another to attempt to stop himself from crying. That didn’t work, but he was weeping softly enough that hopefully nobody would hear.

“You okay!?” A girl’s voice said from above him.

Before he had a chance to even turn himself around, he felt an arm around his own, pulling him upwards and getting him off the ground. The girl was surprisingly strong- easily heaving him off the ground and up into a sitting position. He got a good look at her, now that he was upright- she had white hair tied into a ponytail sticking straight up.

“You ate shit there!” She commented, rather bluntly.

Ryuki laughed at her statement, but choked on a sob the second he was done.

The girl kneeled down to meet his eye level. “You alright?” She reiterated.

“Bad day,” He whimpered. “Just got worse.”

“Yeah, you’re lookin’ pretty rough.” She grabbed his arm again, yanking him off the ground. “C’mon, I’ll take you to my Gym, and we can get you patched up.”

“You’re a Gym Leader?” He asked.

“Yeah! The name’s Roxie. You might’ve heard of me.”

Ryuki, admittedly, hadn’t. Though, he was too busy trying to hold back tears to say anything. Roxie seemed to detect this, so she didn’t say anything else as they strolled to her Gym. Luckily, it wasn’t too far away.

They came to a fairly inconspicuous looking building- not what Ryuki had expected of a Gym in Unova. She fished around in her pockets for a key, taking it out and unlocking the front door. She led him down a rather grungy staircase and into what seemed to be a venue for a small concert. Ryuki was curious, wanting to ask questions, but he was too distracted by pain to get anything out.

Roxie pulled out a chair from a table and gestured for Ryuki to take a seat. Once he sat down, he inspected himself- both of his knees were scraped, as well as one of his elbows and the side of his arm. Good grief, it hurt. As he was wallowing in his agony, Roxie returned with a wet towel.

“Alright, this is gonna hurt. Sorry ‘bout that…”

Ryuki nodded, bracing himself for pain as Roxie knelt down and brushed the cloth across his knee. He barely contained a yell, but he didn’t want to make himself look pathetic, so he kept himself quiet.

Roxie wasn’t trying too hard to be gentle- it seemed like she was just trying to get the chunks of asphalt out of his leg. Once she was satisfied with both of his legs, she moved to his arm, repeating the process.

“You’re lucky you landed on your side,” she commented as she cleaned his arm, “Or else we would’ve had to do this for your other one, too.”

“Yeah, ‘lucky’ as this can be, I guess,” Ryuki sighed, his voice cracking a bit as he spoke.

“You said you had a bad day, right? What happened? Before you ate shit, y’know.”

Ryuki hung his head low. “Got my guitar stolen. I was looking for the guy when I fell.”

“Whaaat?! That’s bullshit!” Roxie cried out. “Did you get a look at the guy?! We’ll find him, I swear!”

Ryuki shrugged. “Nah… I just left my guitar alone for a second, and when I came back… poof. Gone.”

“Aw, man. That’s terrible… I’d give you one of mine, but I play bass…”

“I figured you played,” Ryuki commented, looking around. “And, it’s fine, man. I’ll survive.”

Roxie frowned. “You didn’t say that confidently.”

The other stretched his arm a little, trying not to let the pain get to him. “I’ll find a way.”

As he was stretching, Roxie finally got a decent glimpse at his face, his bangs falling to the side just enough to reveal a scrape on his face, as well.

“Your face,” She said, pointing to his cheek. “You scraped your cheek, too.”

“I’ll get that one myself… my hotel’s not far away.”

“Hotel? You’re not from around here?”

“Nah, I’m from Blackthorn.” The name didn’t seem to ring a bell for Roxie. “It’s in Johto.”

“Never heard of it. But, hey, if you’re trying to make it big, you came to the right place!”

“That’s exactly why I’m here,” Ryuki smiled, ignoring that the stretching of his cheek burned so much he wanted to start crying again. “I was in Nimbasa the other day for a gig… It was small, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Oh, hell yeah!”

Ryuki got up from his seat, groaning at how much both his legs hurt. “Thanks, man. I’m gonna go pick up some bandages and head back, I think…”

“Good luck,” Roxie replied, holding out her fist, beckoning him to return the favor. Ryuki did as she requested, fist bumping her and grinning. “If you ever need anything, or just wanna hang out, you can come back here, okay?”

“I’ll take you up on that!” He said as he walked up the stairs to the door.

Once he was outside and alone once again, he couldn’t help but smile despite the pain he was in. That was the first real connection he’d made in Unova- things felt a little less lonely and suffocating now.

Though, he still had to limp back to his hotel, which would be… fun.