"I didn't ask to be this way, you know? Nobody asks to be this way."Riku was twelve when he was orphaned. Nothing new here. A story everybody has heard before. No need to go into details there. But something was off about this one... Really off.
A year or so later, living with his aunt, he was sent a letter in the mail. Something of a gift from the people who killed his parents. Probably should be mentioned they were hit by a car on a walk back from the Natural History museum a few blocks away from their house. Riku stayed home to watch the dog.
The envelope said "Heart to Heart" on it. Inside was a photo of a young girl, about his age. She was missing an arm and most her left leg. Riku didn't know why they sent him this, and really wasn't about to go asking until he read the letter inside of the envelope.
Long story short, it detailed how the girl in that photo is actually the daughter of the drivers of that car, the one who hits Riku's parents. Their daughter was sick and in the hospital and due to a scarcity of time until they return from a business trip in Europe, they request that he, the son of the one's they got away with murder from... that he look after their daughter. There was no name on the letter. No return address. They were so scared to send this letter and be caught that they even went as far as to cover their tracks.
Riku pitied the girl for having parents like that.
"Only because its a favor to those who now owe me two."Riku started visiting the address labeled on the envelope, a local hospital close to bridge of the city. Riku opened up the door after being led up there by a rather elderly nurse. Probably a favorite worker here.
Upon opening the door, he felt the a brief wind blow in the room. The window was open and nobody was in the bed. His heart was already on the fritz. Did she jump? Is nobody monitoring these rooms?!
He dashed over to the window, staring out it. To his misinformation, she in fact was not splattered on the asphalt on the ground, but was in fact in her underwear and a white t-shirt, coming out of the bathroom. Riku was now, halfway out her window, staring out of it like some creep, in her hospital bed.
She screamed. Very loud. Riku almost fell out of the window. It was quite the sight, you really had to be there.
"Who?! What?! NURSE!!!" She screeched.
And so from there Riku met somebody he never wanted to meet, and he was already about to be kicked out of her life from being a creep and not checking the bathroom for a soul. He blinked, and looked at her... what happened to the missing arm and leg, she seemed to have all 4 appendages. Riku rubbed his eyes, blinked, and looked again. The girl was clearly irritated, wondering what he was looking at.
"I... uh, shouldn't you only have one arm and leg?"
She raised her eyebrows, wondering what this idiot was thinking... it wasn't a few moments even before her eyes widened, she shut the door and hopped onto the bed. She crawled over Riku, pushing him down, his head now hanging out the window. His beanie flew off into the wind, revealing his pink hair.
Just the sight of the hair and his snake-like eyes nearly got the girl off, but she persisted.
"How did you know about that? Are you some weird stalker, creeper, weirdo?!"
"No, your parents sent me a letter. Told me to come see you..."
She understood at that moment. She cried. They had a moment. Love was to blossom over the next two years. Turns out she was a synthetic project, and had been getting help with new limbs. It was working perfectly and she was probably going to be fine soon, once the medicine started kicking in to get used to the new body parts.
"I'm begging you, I'm begging you, please don't go."But that didn't happen.
Three and a half years, plus two days since the lovely couple had met up. The medicine was declining and the girl's body wasn't taking the body parts very well (The girl's name was Akira, by the way.)
Riku spent days on-end with her, by her side in the hospital. Rainy days, sunny days, cloudy days, snowy days. All of them. He didn't want her to die too, after his own parents were now gone. While Riku was not an especially emotional person at first glance, these things got to him... He had to be strong though. Strong enough for the people he was caring about.
One day he didn't have to anymore. She was gone. Her body had a highly violent reaction to a medication, one she overdosed on in the first place. It killed her in a matter of minutes after consumption. Riku watched the entire event unfold. Poor lad.
Years later, after wiping his tears and becoming a big boy, he realized something. As bloody cliche as it was, he decided on something. Something Akira had mentioned to him before she was sick.
"When you aren't okay, you have to turn that feeling into happiness, because people don't like sad people you know? Do you like being sad? Do you like other people being sad? So stop it."
Riku didn't get her logic. He still only barely understands what she meant by it to this day, but that was the decision he made. To follow her orders. Stop being sad. Stop others from being sad. He would give his sadness in the form of awe and amazement to make others happy. He took up the new invention.... the "duel disk."
He took up entertainment dueling, joining a dueling circus. At first his deck was just a pretty light show... until people started catching wind of this, this phrase.
"Keep hope! The future we desire is now in reach!" Then, the show would start. Riku's main monster, the dragon with a universe in his eyes, would roar majestically. His fame quickly rose, bringing him to the top ranks of the dueling entertainment industry. He performed at stadiums, known as the Pink Rage. Not because of his monsters, but due to his... hair. It was a weird nickname, but it stuck. The other big one was "66" for reasons unknown to the public.
And so that is what he was. A face for people to keep hope in, knowing the future was always in reach. Anything was doable with the right mindset. Riku was a pioneer of this lesson through Enterme Dueling!
Subject: Disabling All Limiters - Orgia Mode!! 
Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:56 pm
