A New Beginning- A Casino Cups Story {Under Editing}

The Sister Arrives (part 4)

Hours ago, King Dice was happily making his way back to the casino. As he whistled cheerfully, flowers in hand for his plan, 'Idiots in Love', he noticed something from the corner of his eye. He saw one of his boss's most trusted imps spying on a pack of werewolves that were hiding out in a nearby alley way. He sighed and said, "This should be good." He walked quietly behind the imp and whispered into his little demon ear, "What are you doing? Not getting into more trouble than the boss needs are ya?" The little imp almost let out a yelp when it covered its mouth before the scream made it's way out. The imp turned around to King Dice and was somewhat mad but relieved at seeing him.

The imp quietly explained the situation that happened a little while ago and said that if it doesn't get that dagger to the boss, then heads are going roll. Starting with the "delivery imp". King Dice sighed again and said in an exhausted tone, "Alright, let me handle the situation, and just in case things get ugly, (which it always does). I need you to deliver these flowers to Adrian and Mugman but mainly Adrian. Can't REALLY trust too much on Mugman in the ways of romance. He can't even properly ask the girl he likes out to a simple date! Although I could say the same for Cuphead......" He pondered about that for a minute and then shook it off. "Anyways, give these to Mugman and Adrian, tell them to go ahead with the plan. And if they don't completely remember the plan, tell them that I've written the plan down on a piece of paper that's in a folder that's in my front desk drawer. The key to the drawer is on my desk. You can't really miss it, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Can you do that Clover?"

Clover was its nickname that the boss had given it because of its clover shaped tail. As it listened to Dice's instructions, he made sure to remember everything accordingly. But there was still one worry though, if it returned without the dagger it would most definitely be punished. The imp told this to Dice and he said, "If the boss gives you trouble, then tell him that I told you to leave it to me since things looked a little iffy. Now go do as you're told, and I'll see you and the boss soon. Got it?" The imp shook its head yes rapidly and made a dash for it for the casino making sure not to ruin the flowers.

"Well, let's get this over with." Dice took a deep breath, closed and reopened his emerald green eyes, and made sure to make himself looking as menacing as he could. But with a bit of a dignified and royal like manner to himself. You know, the same manner as when he's being a prick that gets on everyone's nerves? Yeah, this wasn't going to go well, on either end. Long story short, he went in the alley way tried to "reason" with the werewolves, and the next thing you know, a gun fight ensues. Miraculously, he didn't get hit by the bullets or scratched, bit, hit, or kicked by any of the werewolves. And he was about to use an attack to wipe them all out in one blow. But little did he know that the werewolf that had the dagger had somehow snuck behind him. Dice didn't know this till it was too late. When he turned around to defend himself from the werewolf, he had been slashed by the dagger all across his chest. At first, it didn't seem to hurt; in fact, there wasn't even a single scratch on him! But when Dice tried to use his Devil powers, the Holy power of the dagger went in affect. Soon enough there was blood spilling everywhere. It almost killed Dice, but remarkably, due to his contract with his boss, he was able to make more blood, heal somewhat of his injury, and gain somewhat of his senses. With ferocity, he upper-cutted the werewolf, knocked him out, and took the blade. The gang was now in total panic and made a run for it, leaving their knocked out leader behind.

Dice, huffing and puffing, collapsed to the ground. His mind kept disappearing in and out of consciousness. He couldn't tell how much time went by. But apparently, the imp returned a few hours later to look for Dice and found him lying on the ground bleeding like crazy. Clover panicked, and quickly assessed the situation and reported to his boss to send for reinforcements. But little did Clover know, was that as soon as it left, Josephine would find him and try to help as best as she could. When she left for a few minutes, Clover came back with help via portal and carefully took Dice back to the casino.

Hours later, Dice woke up with bandages wrapped around his upper torso. He asked his boss what happened and his boss said, "Well you were bleeding like crazy because you got slashed by the Holy Dagger and were about to kick the bucket. But remarkably you managed to pull through. Which I find quite peculiar because even with my powers, I can't really compete against something that killed so many of my minions. Only something as pure and Holy like the dagger itself can cancel out the effects of the blade. Tell me, Dice. Was there something or someone with you that was peculiar or strange?" Dice, trying to struggle with his memory said, "I don't really know boss. During that time, it's was all a blur. Currently, I can't really recall anything." "Hmmmmm...... Well there was definitely someone with you at the time." As he said this he pulled out the purple towel that had just been washed from the blood and handed it to Dice. He said, "If you remember the person who helped you, tell me about them, I would like to know who saved my right hand man. By the way, that werewolf gang leader has been captured and is now serving out his sentence in one of my dungeons. Thanks for the hard work. And if you need a day off or so, it would be understandable. Get some rest Dice, see ya!"

As his boss left the room Dice leaned and laid back in his bed and slowly thought through his memories the whole night, trying to see if he could remember who could've helped him. He thought through and through but couldn't seem to remember anything. It wasn't till Joan stopped by to offer him get well gifts from the crew that it finally came to him. "Here you go sir. The employees wanted to come over and wish you to get well, but the "Oh-so-important Prince of Darkness" told them to get back to work and visit later. Then, he singled me out under the excuse that I was the most "capable" one here for the job. And told me to come here with the gifts. I have some more in the hallway, just give me a minute to get them." Dice thanked her and let her continue her job. He suddenly got a bit thirsty and when he got up to get a drink of water, he got a bit dizzy from a headrush because he stood up to quick. He fell to the floor with a resounding "THUD".

When Joan came back into the room, she asked, "Sir? Is everything ok? I thought I heard a ---- GASP----!!!!!!" She dropped the gifts and ran over to him and gently picked him up to where she could see him properly. "Oh my gosh! Sir?! Are you alright?!" And just like that, it hit him, he remembered that when he was bleeding out, he heard a familiar voice and felt a gentle touch. True he couldn't see and hear all that well, (along with his other senses), but he knew for certain that it was the woman that he helped out earlier that day! Then he noticed that Joan had similar features to the woman and asked if she had any other family members living on Inkwell Isle. Joan replied, "No I don't think so. All my other family lives really far away from here. Why though?" "Oh, nothing dear, you just reminded me of someone I knew. Don't pay any heed to it. But more importantly did you receive anything pleasantly strange recently?" Joan flinched and raised an eyebrow and said, "Ummm, I actually did. I opened my locker after my shift was over and saw a wildflower bouquet with a love poem with it. It didn't say who it was from though. But regardless, it was really nice and sweet. It's been a while since something like that has happened to me. Do you know anything about it sir?" Dice made a nonchalant smile and said that he just heard through the grapevine at work. Joan thought to herself, "Word does travel fast in this place doesn't it?"

She helped him back onto his bed, got all the gifts in order and quickly left. After she did this, Dice couldn't help but get smug over how well his first part of his plan turned out. He found it also remarkable that Mugman and Adrian executed the plan perfectly without her suspicions. The flowers that he got were from Adrian's advice that when she was a kid, she loved wild flowers. Because it made her feel free. And the poem was put together by Mugman using Cuphead's description of her and what he would do if she went out with him. Adrian had to make sure that Mugman didn't exaggerate Cuphead's words into a Shakespearean play write. Kept it short and sweet just the way she liked it. And of course the combo lock number was given by Adrian. It also helped that the little imps kept her distracted while they were putting it in her locker before she got back to get her things. Yep! Everything was going perfect so far. But now the question still remaining was, who exactly was that woman and why did she help out a total stranger? I mean, for all she knew, he could've been criminal or far worse! Which in hindsight, he was, which made it all the more confusing. He didn't say anything and she was (for what he knew) blind! Why would she help someone like him? The more he thought about it, the more questions like the first kept popping up in his head. Which to his extent provided him with no rest throughout the day whatsoever.

To be continued...