Katsura was in a good mood today.
He had managed to get the parts he needed, and at a discount too, to boot. How fortunate of him. As a matter of fact, he had quite a sum of money left over that he had allocated for this. Even though it would be more logical to, say, save it for something else, he just couldn't resist deciding to take a detour to the hobby shop nearby to get himself something.
"A quick detour wouldn't hurt, especially not on a day like this. Perhaps i'll get myself one of those model robots again. I think I remember having my eye on something that I saw there last time as I was heading out. Perhaps i'll see if I can find it again. With today's luck, I may very well do so." he thought. That thought cheered him quite a bit...
... that is, until he got to the storefront, which had a rather sizable crowd in front of it. Which wasn't unusual, in and of itself, but rather, unusual in that the crowd appeared to be towards one particular thing. It didn't take long for Katsura to find out what was going on either. Apparently, it was some sort of contest to see who could solve a
Yottaminx puzzle that was on a table outside near the entrance, as some sort of promotional stunt for the store. The prize for doing so was, appropriately, a voucher for a rather sizable discount on the store's items. By the looks of it, the contest had been going on for a while now, as the crowd got more and more excited with each contestant that walked up to try their hand at it to solve, and with each one that walked off, having given up soon after.
He didn't really blame them either for giving up. The Yottaminx was the equivalent of a 15x15 Rubik's cube in a dodecahedron form, after all. He had solved the Megaminx, and it's larger variants before, amongst other things, but even he wasn't entirely sure he could solve the Yottaminx. A contestant was only given one chance at the prize, and Katsura honestly didn't want to risk it. He hated being in front of a crowd, it made him nervous.
He just wanted to get in the store, a task proving quite difficult with the crowd somewhat blocking the entrance.
After a few attempts at trying to get there, he sighed. It looked like he had no choice.
He would have to take a shot at it, in hopes of
maybe solving it. Otherwise, the alternative was to wait, and he seriously doubted the crowd would be clearing up any time soon. Of course, he could just walk away entirely, but some part of him, the part of him that couldn't resist a challenge told him not to. He could practically hear it encouraging him to go up at it...
"Come on, if she were here, you'd be already up there, solving it. Besides, isn't today your lucky day? You can do it." It whispered in his mind.
Sighing in resignation, he walked up to the table, indicating that he wanted to test his hand at it.
"Hey there, sir, before you start trying to solve the Yottaminx, what's your name?" A person, presumably a staff member at the shop asked him.
"Katsura. Katsura Yukimura." He said in a slightly nervous tone before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. He
really wasn't good with crowds...
"Well then, Katsura, you're now free to start! Just remember, there's no shame in choosing to give up here, alright? I'm not even sure I can solve it... and i'm the one who's in charge of it!" The staff member said.
Katsura just ignored him at that point, already analyzing the puzzle before him. When figuring out what pattern he needed to use, he settled for the Terraminx, which was a 13x13 variant of the megaminx as a base reference. From there, he tried to figure out in his head how to solve that with two additional cubes in the making.
It had taken him two months to work out how to consistently solve the Terraminx.
Now he had to solve the Yottaminx, the largest one ever, in less than a day.
Not good odds, but he had to try, at the very least.
He gulped nervously as he began to fiddle with it, at first shaky and nervous, almost dropping it several times. He began to let his hands guide him, almost like they were dancing a waltz. As it went on though, his hands grew more and more fluid and steady in motion, working out what to do through trial and error.
By this point, the crowd was mesmerized by the sight of this frail-looking man who's hands were like magic actually
solving this thing that had stumped so many previously. No one dared make a sound, lest it somehow ruin the show that proceeded to run before their eyes.
Soon, one face was solved. Then another. Then one more. Until finally...
"I have finished. This Yottaminx is now solved." Katsura said, sweating. He looked at the watch the staff member was wearing. A whole hour had passed since he started. Focusing for this long for him in the past had given him a nasty headache in the following hours. He'd have to head back soon to home, otherwise, he'd be in for a bad time in public.
Slowly, in a state of stunned disbelief, the staff member began to carefully examine it. The crowd grew tense. This was it. If this seemingly magic man had cheated, this was where he'd be unmasked.
"He... he's done it." The staff member said after a moment in shocked silence in a whisper before snapping out of it and repeated it in a much more jubilant tone:
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.... WE HAVE A WINNER!"" The staff member bellowed triumphantly, causing the whole crowd to erupt in cheers. Katsura simply bowed humbly, accepting the voucher gracefully.
"It was nothing." He said, barely hiding his sheer joy and relief. He honestly wasn't entirely sure that he'd be able to, and the fact he had cheered him greatly inside.
He then walked into the store, only to trip on, of all things, a megaminx box that had been knocked down by accident.
"Um... some assistance, please?" Katsura said weakly, having thankfully landed on a patch of carpeting set out. He was fine, thankfully, but it would still hurt like hell later.
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