The samurai didn't know where he was.

It seemed similar to the forest outside his hometown. But it didn't feel right. The sounds seemed different, The air felt different. He didn't feel as though he'd been transported, and yet... something felt wrong, as though something were missing yet there all at the same time.

He continued his wanderings before coming across a wood and metal track. A strange trail, to be certain, but one that would certainly lead him to the nearest town, hopefully to make sense of his clear lack of orientation.

The sounds did seem different, especially along...

Fate always gets the last laugh.

You expect one thing, another happens. You predict a storm, there's not a cloud in the sky. You bet on red, the ball lands on black.

Or worse, double-zero. Salt in the wound.

I hated it. Predictions, prognostications, fortunes even, for those inclined to call it that... they're supposed to be real. I always believed in that little bit of the supernatural, some little psionic impulse, letting you see fate, visualize fate, and perhaps even manipulate fate.

Only I could never get it right. Nothing ever rang true, even when I deliberately predicted the...