Luca continued watching the two bid back and forth, whilst further questioning the authenticity of this gun they were both bidding for. He knew he couldn't ask for a closer look; then the two people bidding for the gun would get suspicious, so he kept squinting to see if that would help him get a better look at the gun.
For a moment, Sora didn't say anything. It seemed like she had given up. Until she responded with "Nine hundred thousand." Sora kept a good hold of her dagger. She knew that things were getting a little bit out of control and her competitor was going to do something sooner or later.
Simon rolled his eyes and jumped up on the stage. "Alright, no more of this." He took the gun, handed the auctioneer seven hundred thousand dollars, and pulled out his knife. "I'm not here to kill anybody, but I also won't hesitate. So, you know, come forward at your own risk and all that."
Luca had a feeling deep inside him that told him things would escalate; and they did, just as he began to overthink that idea. He didn't bother leaving, though- He was interested in seeing how far this would go. He didn't mind the looming sense of possible danger, so he made his mind and just stayed in the crowd.
"I was waiting for something like this to happen. I knew you were going to get fed up sooner or later." She said as she pulled out her dagger. "You're not the only one with a weapon, sweetheart. We can do this the easy way. You give me the gun, and I pay you an extraordinary amount of money. Or we can do this the hard way. And let me tell you. I doubt you'll like the hard way."
"Oh, lovely. Is that an iron dagger? An exquisite piece, no? I'll tell you what. The gun for the dagger, sound good? If it iron." Simon gestured with his knife and licked his lips.
She looked down at her dagger and smirked. "I see you have an excellent taste in weapons, dear." She paused and made her way onstage. "But I'm afraid that's going to be a no. This is no ordinary iron dagger. Don't let its appearance fool you. Now, you give me the gun, and I pay you and we can pretend like this never happened…or…"
"So it is iron? Fascinating." Simon eyed her carefully. "I'll make the offer one more time, love. I'd hate to steal that from you."
"As I said, it's not for trade, dear." She laughed as she held her dagger tighter. "Oh, I don't think you'd hate to steal this from me. Quite the opposite. And I'd love for you to try and steal it away from me." She smiled maliciously as she narrowed her eyes at him. "No one and I mean no one has succeeded. Instead, they succeeded in getting harmed."
"I'm a masochist anyway." He activated the poles in his hands, causing the dagger to be torn away. Simon quickly forced the knife under her chin and picked up the dagger. "Listen. I have no doubt, zero, that you could very easily take this back. So consequently, I'm going to throw this into the river." He tossed it far enough that it dropped into the water, near the middle of the water. "I'm going to estimate that you're less than six feet tall, which means you'll have to dive for it. This leaves you with three choices: jump into the water and get it, leaving me to escape; surrender to me and I'll get it back out for you, or attempt to wrench both the gun and the dagger from my grasp." Simon tilted his head back and said, "I've played chess enough to know that check doesn't mean checkmate, so I'm not going to let my guard down."
Luca watched this all go down, but eventually got bored and walked back to his house. Eh, it's not worth it, Luca, he thought. Might as well go outside another time. He shoved his left hand inside of the inner pockets of his lab coat and pulled out a disembodied hand, not caring if it was out of view or not. He rubbed the hand on its palm and then put it back in his inner pocket. "Not now, love," he mumbled, supposedly to the hand. He looked around and realized a rather young kid had seen him with the hand, and he handed the kid a piece of candy, probably to bribe the kid into silence.
"Oh crap. I guess I have no choice but to surrender to you." She said with a sigh. With one hand, she summoned two thick vines, that wrapped around Simon in lifted him a couple of inches into the air, just enough so the knife wasn't under her chin. "Or I could just do this." She said as she took the knife out of his grasp.
"Checkmate," Simon said wryly and threw the gun at the ground, making it break into a dozen pieces. "You can have those if you'd like," he offered and pointed at the shards on the ground. "Old-World plastic isn't too sturdy."
Sora groaned and dropped the knife on the ground. "I hate you so much right now." She said as she walked to the river. She knew that the only way for Simon to get out was either if she let him down, or he slashed the thick vines. She sighed as she dived into the water, going down to find the dagger. She quickly found it and went back to the surface.
"Absolutely chuffed," Simon said to himself with a grin, watching Sora jump into the water. "If you had let me down I would have gotten that for you. Also, I'd like my knife back, if you don't mind too terribly."
She blew a raspberry and walked back to the stage. She picked up the knife from the ground, and made the vines disappear, making Simon fall to the ground. "Hm, maybe you would. Or maybe you would've taken it for yourself." She passed the knife to Simon. "Here you go, dear."
"I appreciate it. And, no, I wouldn't have taken it. I'm a perfectly respectful person. Unlike some people." He slid the knife back into its sheath on his arm and pulled his sleeve down over it.
"Hm, I see," Sora said with a little hum. She kneeled down on the ground and took out her phone. She took a picture of the shards and sent it. Moments later, she got her response and shrugged. She picked up the shards of the gun and stood up straight. "Well, this was…fun…" She looked at the people and frowned. "What are you looking at? Don't you have something else to do than waste your time here?"
Some people were starting to break away from the crowd. Most likely the ones who didn't want any trouble.