The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume5 Side A

Status: Incomplete

15/38 parts completed

   

Jinnai Shinobu's Apocalypse — Side A — OP_code"Personal_apocalypse".

Part ? (3rd person — Day ??/?? ??:?? - ??:??)

“Lost baggage? …What? You mean, um, wait. So it was lost!? But that ‘item’ was top secret!!”

“It’s already gone, so there’s no use complaining about it. Or do you think that’s going to magically make it appear?”

“If it was that important, why didn’t you keep it with your carry-on baggage? I’m going to officially report this!!”

“I didn’t want something that dangerous on me! I know plenty of people who assumed a domestic flight was safe and came to regret it!!”

“Okay, understood. Everyone, we need to calm down. The carrier decided to transport the ‘item’ by hiding it in a civilian travel bag, but that travel bag has gone missing as lost baggage. Is that clear?”

“Can’t we track the bag?”

“If we’d attached a transmitter, the signal would have been intercepted. It would be like telling the entire world to come take it from us.”

“You mean…”

“No one knows what airport it ended up at.”

“The airline isn’t stupid. They’ll find it before long and contact the civilian student. There’s nothing we can do until that student picks up his travel bag.”

“Could someone fake their identity so we can collect the bag ourselves?”

“Do you want to stand out? That would increase the risk of revealing the ‘item’s’ existence, you know?”

“…Dammit.”

“Now you’re catching on. Unfortunately, all we can do now is pray.”

Part 2 (Day 10/03 20:30 - 21:20)

“Mn…”

I awoke to the sensation of something dripping from my mouth.

After a slight delay, I noticed the noisy hustle and bustle of movement from all directions, so I tried to remember where I was.

“Shinobu.”

Before I could determine the situation, I heard the familiar voice of a glamorous Zashiki Warashi.

“You can use me as a body pillow if you want, but try not to get drool on my yukata. Or do you want me to hit you?”

“Whoa!!!???”

I frantically jumped up from the bench and my right calf cramped unnaturally. I ended up rolling around on the hard floor and performed an equivalent of first aid by extending my knee, grabbing my toes in both hands, and pulling them forward.

Only then did I remember where I was.

Oh, that’s right.

This was the lobby of a floating domestic airport connected to an Intellectual Village named Goldmine Island. I was waiting for an employee to contact me about the whereabouts of my lost travel bag and my parents had already gone on to the inn. …Of course, I didn’t really think I was going to get my bag that day since no one could say which airport it had been sent to.

Trouble on the first day of a trip? What did I do to deserve this?

It was a weekday, but being the son of an Intellectual Village artisan gave me the excuse I needed to officially take some time off of school. It was thought that studying my father’s work would be more useful than rote learning using textbooks and a blackboard.

For that reason, this trip felt a lot like part of my dad’s work.

Of course, being with my parents restricted what I could do, but being able to skip school while everyone else was stuck their studying still felt liberating.

“I don’t think it’s coming today. At this rate, you’ll be waiting until dawn with the people spending the night in the airport to save some money.”

“I guess I’ll go tell them my cell number, then.”

“It’s not like you have anything in your bag you don’t want them to see, right?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I had my nice underwear in there.”

I exchanged my contact information with the airport worker who took the extremely American stance of keeping his back oddly straight and refusing to apologize despite admitting their error. After that, I left the floating airport with the Zashiki Warashi.

An overwhelming deluge of light seemed to sweep away the darkness of night as it filled my vision.

Everywhere I looked, I saw neon, neon, and more neon. The ideas of energy conservation and global warming were thrown out the window and everything glowed like a house that took its Christmas decorations too far. I saw playing cards, roulettes, bunny girls, rolls of cash, and bags of coins. Even without checking each of the symbols creating an overall electronic sign motif, anyone could tell what this place was.

“Welcome to Japan’s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!”

Someone called out to me after I took just three steps off the airport’s grounds.

A middle-aged driver was leaning against the side of a white limousine that was stretched out like a dachshund.

“Where do you need to go? You look like a kid, but if you’ve got a Zashiki Warashi with you, you must be pretty rich. If you’re not sure where to have some fun, how about I show you around? There’s no age limit with the publicly managed gambling of a special casino district, you know? How about a toast to the loopholes of an experimental system!?”

“Oh… I just want to get to the inn. But if I’m going to take a long vehicle, a bus is enough.”

“Do you really think you’re going to find something that cheap-looking around here? This is Japan’s Vegas. Having me carry your ass around is the cheapest option. Even helicopters and cruisers are pretty common here. And if it’s just carrying you somewhere, a limo’s not that different from a normal taxi. The first ride’s eight hundred yen and every three hundred meters adds another hundred and twenty yen. That’s a pretty fair system, don’t you think?”

“Just to be sure, you are actually licensed to do this, aren’t you?”

“You want to go check the plate on the back? It’s green and everything. And don’t worry. I’m not some crooked businessman who drives you around and around the island and demands you pay me tens of thousands. What, is this your first time with this kind of thing? You’re all nervous.”

The island itself was small, so the price wouldn’t be too high if I didn’t take a bunch of detours. I had him show me a map and getting to the inn would only cost me two thousand yen.

“Fine. You win. But I only have two thousand yen in my wallet, so get me to the inn before the meter goes above that.”

“Ha ha ha. Is that your allowance or something!?”

“I can’t deny that I’m here on a trip with my parents, but this has more to do with my lost baggage. Most of my stuff was sent off to some other airport.”

The Zashiki Warashi and I climbed into the back seat of the white limousine. We found the kind of fantastical space I’d seen in movies, but I didn’t dare touch the mini-fridge. Who could say how much I would be charged just to open the door.

The middle-aged man’s voice reached us from the distant driver’s seat.

“So where to?”

“Um… An inn called the Gold Crane.”

“If you want make out or something, I can close the smoked glass divider for some privacy.”

“You can leave it open and mind your own business.”

The pure white limousine took off surprisingly roughly and slipped into the nighttime casino city. I looked out the window and the explosively bright neon was enough to see some palm trees here and there.

“Even Kyushu is far enough south to count as tropical, isn’t it?”

“The muddy goldmine mountain has changed a lot too. Nowadays, things are weighted more towards the tourists. Even the abandoned buildings from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island are a popular sightseeing spot.”

“Wasn’t that used as the setting for a video game?”

“A zombie one. Why are those things so popular overseas, anyway?”

Perhaps because it was a casino city, people were walking around in clothes you would never see in a normal city. There were bunny girls trying to attract customers and even derivatives that had where those bunny ears? There were also gentlemen and ladies in suits and dresses and…

“Wh-what are those? There are a bunch of female police officers in really gaudy miniskirts. They look like something from an American pinup magazine.”

“Those aren’t police officers; they’re armed guards. This is still an Intellectual Village and no one wants to give the police any more authority. But as a business, they need to give their customers what they want. …Simply put, there are a surprising number of people who want to be stepped on with black leather boots.”

The Indoor Youkai had been awfully quiet for a while. I assumed her special shyness skill had activated, but that apparently wasn’t it.

“Ahh… I don’t like how bright this place is. It’s making my head hurt.”

“But this is technically classified as an Intellectual Village.”

“How?”

“The mountain on the back side of the island has apparently been a goldmine for ages, so maybe you’ll feel better once we get there.”

Youkai naturally hated cities, but as a human, I wasn’t sure how to imagine it. It just didn’t seem real. I always pictured it as something like feeling carsick or the people who couldn’t stand the low frequency waves from wind turbines.

“Oh, right, right,” said the driver without turning around. “You should be careful.”

“About what?”

“You can bring your pretty Zashiki Warashi around with you if you want, but Youkai are forbidden in the casinos. Sneaking one in is enough for people to suspect you of cheating. After all, you could cheat all you wanted with their mysterious powers. Look.”

He pointed his thumb out the window.

I followed it and saw a security guard in a dark suit chucking what looked like stuffed animals out a casino exit and onto the sidewalk.

No, wait.

“What are those? A tanuki, a fox, and…”

“That last one’s probably a badger. Getting thrown out like that is what happens if you’re lucky. Sometimes they’re dealt with in ways I’d rather not mention.”

“Wasn’t this special casino district made to test a system that wouldn’t allow large criminal organizations a way in?”

“And? The stereotypical bad guys aren’t the only ones you have to watch out for. Not to mention that Japan’s Vegas is an experimental system, so it’s hardly perfect.”

The Zashiki Warashi groaned next to me and it seemed to be a warning that we needed to shut up because we were giving her a headache.

As we continued down a road wide enough for a mid-sized charter plane to land on, the white limousine left the casino city and began to circle around to the other side of the island.

The light quickly vanished.

We were now in a black world that looked like someone had rubbed ink over everything. I was sure there was a nice starry sky and firefly lights to see, but my eyes had adjusted to the previous dazzling light and had difficulty picking up that subtler artwork of light. There were tropical trees everywhere that generally seemed to be pineapple-like trees or looked like you could make a leaf swimsuit from them, but there were some maple and gingko trees mixed in. However, even those felt like a part of a giant mountain of black shadows.

Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi had stopped groaning like someone with a hangover and looked a lot more alert.

“I feel a lot better now.”

“Oh, is that so? I’m amazed the overall atmosphere can change so much on the same island. There isn’t a single streetlight around here. And what are those lined up over there? Abandoned buildings?”

“They’re probably the housing complexes and theatres from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island. If the driver is to be believed, they’re a valuable sightseeing resource that brings in people from all over Japan who are obsessed with old buildings.”

It may have been a part of his job because the middle-aged man answered any of our questions.

The buildings looked on the verge of collapse, but he said they were thoroughly reinforced with some kind of plastic so people could safely view them. At the same time, quite a few sensors and personnel had been installed or hired to make sure drunks didn’t try to spray paint graffiti on them.

“I don’t see how those could be on the same level as the casinos.”

“Obsessed people are guaranteed repeat customers and they’ll pay any amount for what they love, so don’t take it lightly.”

“I just can’t imagine it. And I know there’s a rule banning hotels in the casino district and putting them all on the other side of the island, but was that meant to make everything less concentrated on the casino side?”

Not counting the floating airport or harbor block, Goldmine Island only had a perimeter of five kilometers. The mountain was in the center and the coastal area was generally divided between the casino city and the mining city where the residents lived. The airport was on the casino side and the harbor was on the mining side. The abandoned buildings we mentioned before surrounded the mountain near its base.

“Here we are, sir. The Gold Crane, right?”

“Wow. This place is huge. Was it really handmade by craftsmen?”

“If the effort that went into this surprises you, you should learn more about the castles around Japan. On Goldmine Island, inns are the first-class place to stay, moored luxury cruise liners are second-class, and rented cruisers are third-class. You should thank your parents. This is gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime memory.”

Part 3 (Day 10/03 21:20 - 24:45)

I entered the inn, but there were no retro arcade games or ping pong tables.

I heard light footsteps rushing about and faint children’s laughter, but it wasn’t clear where any of it was coming from.

I was pretty certain the sounds did not come from anything human.

The hostess who greeted us looked a little surprised when she saw the Indoor Youkai.

“These are all Zashiki Warashi, aren’t they? They’re doing well for themselves. …It sounds like they might even have dozens of them living here.”

“These are Usuhiki Warashi, Kura Bokko, or Notabariko. They’re all subspecies of the Zashiki Warashi, but they aren’t on the same level as a legit Zashiki Warashi like me.”

“Hm?”

“The Zashiki Warashi is a well-known Youkai, so a lot of similar Youkai are lumped together in the same category. There may have only been one original version, but now they can be anything from a collection of babies killed during a famine to transformed Kappa or badgers who started living in the house.”

“I can’t help but see you as the odd or irregular version.”

The hostess led us down a long wood-floored hallway and to our room. Out of some strange sense of etiquette, the hostess mechanically reached for the sliding door, but I stopped her with a hand and threw the door open myself.

A hellish scene appeared before my eyes.

“Ah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah!! The worrrrrld is spiiiiiinning…”

“…”

My usual silent dad remained silent as my drunk mom spun him around and around and around. Nuts and dried squid were scattered on the table, the tatami mats, and everywhere else. Completely empty sake bottles had been left all over the place. I noticed the names Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty on the labels, so it seemed they were going through the junmai daiginjo they had brought themselves.

My mom kept her arms wrapped around my dad’s neck and her flushed face swayed back and forth.

“Nn… Oh, Shinobu? They already took dinner away, so you’ll have to go without.”

“Geh!?”

“Unlike a hotel, they bring you the food at a set time in Japanese inns. If you aren’t there, you miss out. Huh? Where are you going?”

“I can’t fill my stomach with the nuts and dried squid on the floor, so I have to go find something else to eat. …They’ll at least have a convenience store around here, right?”

“Don’t ask meee. I do think they had a shop near the entrance, though. A single rice ball was 2500 yen. And that’s a plain one. If you want a dried plum inside, the price more than doubles. That’s a tourist area for you.”

“Are you sure Intellectual Villages haven’t just suffered severe inflation?”

With that said, I left the room again. I thought I noticed my silent father give me a look begging me to save him, but I had enough filial piety to not get in their way.

“Why are you still with me, Good-for-Nothing Youkai?”

“You’re going to the casinos, aren’t you?”

I gave a large start.

“M-Miss Zashiki Warashi? How did you ever reach that conclusion?”

“You don’t seem too upset about missing dinner, so you must have something else in mind. You’re excited that you have an excuse to head out at night without rousing their suspicion. And what kind of entertainment do they have out here that you wouldn’t want your parents to know about?”

“Fine, fine. I won’t complain as long as you keep your mouth shut. But paranormal Youkai aren’t allowed in the casinos and they’ll definitely be on the lookout for a fortune-bringing Zashiki Warashi. What’s so fun about waiting outside the building?”

“What are you talking about? Seeing your bewildered expression when you lose every last yen is all the entertainment I need.”

“Just to be sure, you are a Zashiki Warashi, right?”

“Zashiki Warashi aren’t as harmless as children’s books make us out to be.” The Indoor Youkai shrugged. “But how much do you have in your wallet? And your card’s credit limit isn’t very high. I’m not sure you have enough for even one pull at the slots.”

“I’ve already looked into it. They have a beginner’s luck system that gives first-time guests thirty thousand yen in chips for free. The only condition is that you have to use all of the chips before leaving the casino. If you lose, you break even. If you win, the winnings go right into your wallet.”

“So they give you a taste of gambling so you’ll get addicted to it later?”

“Either way, we’ll be leaving this island in two or three days. You can’t just do this anywhere like with pachinko or horseracing, so I couldn’t become an addict if I tried.”

I took a peek in the inn’s shop just to check, but I immediately grimaced and left. The canned drinks found in vending machines everywhere cost more than a thousand yen each, so this wasn’t just the modern rural system where the luxurious ingredients drove up the price. The product was in no way worth what they were charging.

“What are we going to do about dinner?”

“If I win, we can have a luxurious meal with a bunny girl on the side. If I lose, we’ll have to drink my tears. Do you feel like rooting for me now?”

A wooden sign set up near the inn’s main entrance said, “Partnered with VR Casino City – Heavy Cruiser Island. Feel free to join us by PC, cellphone, or smartphone. –Goldmine Island Casino Promotion Committee”

“Didn’t that taxi driver mention Heavy Cruiser Island?”

“Just like with Edo and Yamataikoku, it’s a symbol of the ‘good old days’ people long for.”

“But a virtual casino? What’s so fun about playing what’s really just a video game after coming all the way to a real casino island?”

“It seems you can buy points that can be used on the island. The units are Gears. They work with a monstrous point card system that over forty million people use and are accepted at major drugstores, video rental stores, and online stores, so you could easily call it a virtual currency.”

“Wait a second, you good-for-nothing.”

“But the app apparently gives out your location and it won’t let you play if you aren’t inside the island’s special casino district, so it’s still pretty frustrating.”

“Why do you know so much about this? Don’t tell me you’ve been gambling with my smartphone!”

No matter how much I questioned her, she only casually averted her gaze.

Dammit, I have to eventually get back that phone nestled between those giant breasts!

At any rate, we left the inn.

The sticky ink-like darkness of the rural night covered everything and I sighed as I looked around.

“Now for the first problem.”

“It looks like our only option is to walk to the casino district on the other side of the island. You can’t hire a taxi with that beginner’s luck system of yours, can you?”

“…”

Worried, I looked down at my cellphone.

When I saw the “28°” reading, I felt an unpleasant sweat pouring down my body.

Part 4 (Day 10/03 23:10 - 23:25)

It took wayyyy to long.

I had noticed it was surprisingly cool when I arrived on the island, but that had apparently been due to the breeze on that low-humidity night. As soon as I saw the digital temperature reading, I felt like the normal heat of the night suddenly returned.

And then I had to take a hellish marathon through that heat.

I was soaked with sweat and all the heat built up inside me almost made me want to die right then and there.

There was no way this could lead to my vision of dancing in gold coins as the king of the casino with a cocktail glass in one hand.

“This might be your punishment for trying to show off.”

“P-pant pant!! I-I didn’t do anything wrong!!”

It felt like midnight was fast approaching, but things were actually only just beginning in the casino city. The rush of fancy cars and women in gorgeous dresses showed no sign of stopping. I saw fireworks here and there, but it was apparently still too early for that to qualify as a late-night nuisance.

I frantically caught my breath and heard some suppressed giggling. I turned around to look and saw a small girl of about twelve or thirteen peering at me from between two buildings.

“What is that?”

“A Youkai, I think. Probably an Usuhiki Warashi, a version of a Zashiki Warashi like me.”

The girl had long hair and not only did she wear a short mini-yukata, but she let it slip far from her shoulders like a courtesan. It looked something like a tube-top style dress.

“Isn’t it sad, glamorous Indoor Youkai? She looks a lot more like an actual Zashiki Warashi than you.”

“Like I said, she’s only an Usuhiki Warashi. Don’t underestimate the real deal.”

When our eyes met, the Usuhiki Warashi let out a quick shriek and ran back into the alley. It looked less like she was afraid of the delinquent boy looking at her and more like she was teasing me.

Either way, it was no concern of mine.

“Shinobu, which casino are you going to use?”

“Any one that has a sign out front welcoming beginner’s luck people. I think that covers about half of them, though.”

As we spoke, a nearby casino door opened and a man dressed like a bartender seemed to chuck a few stuffed animals out onto the road. The softly bouncing creatures seemed to be a tanuki, a fox, and a badger. And they were not stuffed; they were real animals.

Isn’t this the group we saw out the taxi window earlier?

“You dumbasses!! How many times do we have to tell you!? No Youkai allowed! Go eat some soba and get to sleep, you morons!!”

“Shut up! We already told you we wouldn’t use our paranormal powers. We were playing cards fair and square. You’re just using this as an excuse because you started to lose!!”

The fox swung his hands (or front paws?) around as he protested, but the bartender man spat on the ground and returned to the casino.

The tanuki groaned while lying face up.

“Uuh… Th-this really is too much to ask for a wet nurse like me. How are we supposed to wing back the money that corrupt con artist stole?”

The badger got up so fast it looked like steam was going to come from his head. Oh, and while people often think badgers are the same as tanuki, they’re actually completely different animals.

“What!? Tanuki! Are you thinking of backing out after we finally managed to track down Kodama Ryou!? Then what will happen to the old lady and her granddaughter? Those two are in the hospital and need money for treatment. We have to get that lost money back!!”

Ohh…

I instinctually averted my gaze.

“Hey, Zashiki Warashi. I really don’t want to get involved in this.”

“But all three of them are looking this way. Being naturally loved by Youkai isn’t always fun, you know?”

Part 5 (Day 10/03 23:30 - 23:50)

We received a simple explanation on the street.

The three of them were apparently Youkai from Shikoku.

The fox was a gardener, the tanuki was a wet nurse, and the badger was a bodyguard and they had served a human family for generation after generation.

Youkai like this had a huge difference between the good and bad versions. There were gruesome stories about the bad ones killing an old lady who lived alone, taking over her life, and eating the rest of the villagers one by one.

City scholars claimed these stories had their roots in fears of “outsiders from the mountains”. Unlike in modern times, there had been no way to check fingerprints or DNA in the past. And with lax management of the family register, it had not been all that difficult to take the place of an elderly person who lived some distance from a village.

But how would that theory explain the animals walking on two legs in front of me?

“Our master belongs to a family with a long history, but they didn’t want to join the Intellectual Village system and ended up taken in by the advance of rural cities instead.”

“Oh, I think I see where this is going.”

“As you seem to have guessed, they failed to keep up with the changing times. Some might even say the family fell into ruin. They still live in the countryside, but their life is not that much different from a normal office worker.”

“But our loyalty hasn’t changed! You can’t judge someone’s worth based on the size of their savings!”

You really shouldn’t be saying that in a casino city.

They clearly had money troubles.

“So what’s this about a corrupt con artist?” asked the Zashiki Warashi with a shrug. “Not that I’ve ever heard of an honest con artist.”

“Kodama Ryou. He’s the old lady’s hated enemy! He used all sorts of underhanded methods and lies to make us think we could get the money we needed!!”

“What exactly was it?”

“A 100% guaranteed investment opportunity.”

A felt faint for a moment.

Are you seriously telling me it was the kind of scam people make over the phone?

“Laugh if you want,” muttered the wet nurse tanuki while puffing out her cheeks and stomach. “But the granddaughter had suddenly come down with a disease. And it’s a dangerous one that can’t be treated in Japan. The old lady’s pension wasn’t enough to pay for the travel and the surgery and then that man showed up with a smile on his face. What’s wrong with taking a chance when you’re desperate?”

I couldn’t help but give a heavy sigh.

The glamorous Zashiki Warashi crossed her arms in a way that pushed up her breasts and glanced over at me.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“How should I know? I’m only in high school and I’m not an expert when it comes to money.”

It was true I was human. The only others here were a fox, tanuki, badger, and Zashiki Warashi. As Youkai, none of them could enter the casino. I might have been able to confront this con artist named Kodama Ryou. But then what? What was an amateur student supposed to do against a professional trickster?

There was nothing I could do on my own.

Letting my emotions get the better of me would only end with me being taken for everything I was worth.

“But…”

I cut in there.

As the stuffed animal-like Youkai focused on me, I pulled out my cellphone.

“I have a classmate who’s ridiculously good with money. I’ll get some advice from her first.”

Part 6 (Day 10/04 00:00 - 00:20)

“I see what’s going on here, Shinobu-kun. If you see nothing wrong with calling me at this hour, I think you should go get yourself officially diagnosed with a Madoka-chan addiction.”

“You don’t sound like I woke you up, so I’m glad to see we’re both living equally unhealthy lifestyles.”

“Hm? I hear a lot of music in the background. Where are you right now?”

Eccentric beauty Kotemitsu Madoka’s question led me to glance at my surroundings.

Unlike the ridiculous deluge of light outside, the casino itself was moderately filled with soft lighting and music. The volume was a little high, but that may have been to hide the sounds of the roulettes and slot machines. With the red carpet, chic wooden pillars, and decorative green mats on the tables, it was a colorful place.

Despite being a tourist area, the men and women in suits and dresses were not crammed inside like the beach during summer. Leisurely comfort seemed to be the standard here.

I looked down from the second floor to view the poker tables on the first floor.

It covered his expensive suit, belt, and shoes, so it seemed this con artist really liked snakeskin. I just hoped his cocktail glass wasn’t filled with pit viper sake.

“You care a lot about money, Madoka-chan, so have you heard of a Kodama Ryou?”

“Oh…”

“Sounds like you have.”

“He’s a pretty big annoyance in the world of investment. For him, the stock market is a form of gambling, not a business. He buys or sells them with sums measured in the hundreds of millions just to enjoy the thrill. You can’t predict what he’s going to do, so a lot of people have had their stock certificates suddenly turned to scrap paper thanks to him.”

“What is he trying to do?”

“Weren’t you listening? He enjoys the thrill. Do you know his hobby? Art auctions. But after pouring ridiculous amounts of money into a painting or sculpture, he almost immediately donates it to a random museum. The act of acquiring it is what he enjoys. Nothing could be more troublesome.”

“So where does he get his money? If he’s doing that kind of thing all the time, even your average rich kid would run out pretty quickly.”

“Since you bothered to contact me, I assume you already know. He tricks people for fun and then uses the money he gets to enjoy that thrill he loves. And once his wallet is empty again, he starts looking for a new mark. …I said he donates the paintings and sculptures he gets to museums, remember? Thanks to that, every government feels like they owe him. The carefree government officials think of him as a necessary evil, so you can’t expect a proper investigation when he’s involved.”

“What’s this thrill nonsense? He’s made sure he’ll be safe no matter what.”

“But his techniques are stupidly simple. I doubt it, but your family didn’t fall for that, did they?”

“No, just some acquaintances. An old woman in Shikoku fell for it when she was trying to find the money to save her sick granddaughter. Do you think that story’s true?”

“There’s too little information, so I can’t say. But Kodama Ryou has scammed about two thousand people around the country and that’s only the ones I can confirm. Whether that particular story is true or not, he’s probably done something similar. That sick granddaughter sounds like exactly the kind of thing he would use.”

“What?”

“Why do you think everyone falls for it when his speaking skills are no better than an ape’s? I don’t know how, but he always shows up right when a family member has been in a traffic accident or had their house burn down. He targets people when they aren’t thinking straight. My guess is whatever put them in that state was his doing, too. …Could this granddaughter’s disease be reproduced by ingesting some kind of harmful substance?”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I looked back down over the railing and at the first floor poker table.

The lady killer decked out in snakeskin was getting drunk on expensive drink while toying with the cards he was dealt.

As he smiled in the light, I could not see a single stain on him. There was not even a drop of the blood he sucked from his victims.

“Um, Shinobu-kun. If you really do need money, I can help you out. I can get about two billion moving with a single phone call to my accountant.”

“How much of a debt do you want a classmate to owe you? Now you’re just scaring me. And that would be too boring. It wouldn’t feel like actually winning.”

“?”

Yes. For example, winning a ton of money against a computer program in the Heavy Cruiser Island VR casino city using a cellphone or smartphone wouldn’t help cheer me up.

“It has to be from that bastard.”

I extended the thumb and forefinger of my empty hand to make a handgun gesture.

And I thrust it directly toward the face of that snake man who was enjoying his time surrounded by beautiful women.

“I won’t be satisfied unless I take back everything he’s taken and add some interest on top for good measure.”

Part 7 (Day 10/04 00:35 - 01:15)

I got my chip worth thirty thousand yen with the beginner’s luck system and sat at a poker table. It seemed the tables were divided into a few different categories based on how much you could bet at once and I was only allowed at the cheapest table on the far edge of the room.

But even there, I lost almost everything.

The female dealer gave me a sympathetic look as I left the table and then exited the casino.

“Rejoice, my thirty thousand yen chip transformed into one thousand five hundred yen. That’s thanks to getting two of a kind twice. Now I should be able to buy some dinner once I find a normal convenience store somewhere around here.”

“Shinobu, I think the dealer intentionally gave you those hands to draw you in.”

“I also figured out why the VR casino’s virtual currency is called Gears. The chip designs have a gear motif and it seems you can exchange chips between physical and virtual.”

Annoyance filled my tone as I started recalling my observations of the enemy.

“That place is pretty amazing. I’m guessing it’s to keep people from cheating by marking the cards, but they throw them all out after every hand and open the seal on a brand new deck.”

Just like normal animals, the fox, tanuki, and badger were rummaging through a trash can behind the casino.

“Look, they threw out this meat on the bone almost untouched! I can’t imagine why anyone would do this!!”

“They probably confused throwing out perfectly edible food with luxury.”

“Damn them. This is the kind of person that took the old lady’s precious pension money!?”

As they argued back and forth, they began chowing down like they were at a house party. I was just glad they looked so happy.

She must have decided they weren’t going to be any use because the Indoor Zashiki Warashi didn’t even look their way as she spoke to me.

“So what are you going to do? You have to challenge this Kodama Ryou guy to a game of poker to get back the money he stole, right? But I think you need some funds of your own to do that.”

“Yeah, it was no use. With a thirty thousand yen chip, I couldn’t even sit at the same table as him. The minimum was three million. I could blow three million on a single hand. And that could easily double or quadruple if someone raises the bet. There’s no way I can find that kind of money.”

The Zashiki Warashi glanced over at the road and the hands of the men and women slowly stepping out of black limousines.

“It doesn’t look to be like the casino guests are carrying around duralumin cases or anything.”

“I’m not going to steal it, you idiot. And they probably think carry cash is for poor people. They all pay with cards. You’ve heard of a black card, haven’t you? Those have no credit limit. The casinos all have giant servers in the back, so the VIPs always have access to the card companies. To them, it’s really only data moving back and forth.”

“And your card is?”

“You already know that. It’s just meant to make online shopping easier. Paying for my cellphone, cable TV, smartphone, computer, and online gaming is enough to almost hit the limit. I don’t have any leeway there.”

The fox walked out from behind the casino holding a bunch of French fries and began shouting as if he could not overlook what I had said.

“What!? Then what are we going to do? We’ve already hit a dead end before the game has even begun!!”

“That’s right. But anyone in an Intellectual Village casino is going to have odd tastes, so there will be plenty of people who know what things are worth. …I don’t need actual money. I just need something they’ll be even more eager to get their hands on.”

“Shinobu, you don’t mean…”

“Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty.”

The three animals only tilted their heads at those brand names, so I explained.

“That junmai daiginjo is worth fifty thousand yen a cup, so what if I knew where bottles of it were just lying around?”

Part 8 (Day 10/04 02:05 - 02:30)

Simply travelling between the casino and inn was exhausting.

The Zashiki Warashi and I gathered the empty bottles lying around our room in the inn and filled them with tap water. My parents were completely drunk, so it wasn’t difficult.

“W-will that really fool them?”

The wet nurse tanuki was clearly nervous when we got back, but there was really no need to worry about it.

“The bottles and labels are definitely from the Jinnai Brewery and they’ll know I really am the son of the family if they check my identity.”

“But that’s only water in there, right?”

“No one can open the bottles. The scarcity is everything with brand-name sake. You’ve essentially ruined it as soon as you open it, so they can’t carelessly appraise it or anything. No one would be delighted to eat the leftovers of someone’s fancy dinner, right? Well, this is the same. …As long as I don’t lose, no one’s going to check on the contents. And this many bottles should count for about seven million yen.”

“B-but what if they do a careful examination of the cork.”

“Don’t worry. One unique trait of the Jinnai Brewery is the lack of a decorative label over the cork. The idea is that avoids dirtying the mouth of the bottle with adhesive. The clasp over the cork is used to tell if it’s been opened or not, but you can bend that with a coin. They won’t be able to tell as long as they don’t check with a jeweler’s magnifying glass.”

The fox and badger were discussing our strategy a short distance away.

“What are we going to do?”

“Kodama Ryou is a con artist, so there’s no need for us to play fair either.”

The Zashiki Warashi tapped her shoulder with a huge sake bottle.

“But pulling this off only gets you at the same table as him. He’s managed to stay at that high-stakes table for who knows how long, so he has to be cheating somehow.”

“W-we’ve heard something about that.” The tanuki raised one paw while standing on her hind legs. “We heard it from a gentleman who lost everything to him. He claimed Kodama Ryou uses an Usuhiki Warashi and that he wouldn’t have lost if he could have found some proof. The man was pretty drunk, though.”

“An Usuhiki Warashi, you say?”

A troubled look filled my face.

Hadn’t I heard giggling from between two buildings and seen a Youkai that looked like a small girl?

An Usuhiki Warashi was a subspecies of Zashiki Warashi that would appear near the stone mill in old houses. Other than that trait, they were almost identical to a Zashiki Warashi. They brought wealth and fortune to the family of the house they lived in, but that house would fall into decline as soon as they left. According to the records, they would predict fires or lead to an entire clan being wiped out in a single night.

The only other major trait was the frequent non-malicious pranks. In those cases, it apparently wasn’t unusual for them to leave the home or stone mill they saw as their territory. For example, when children were playing in the house’s yard or in the schoolyard, an extra child would mysteriously appear among them. It was obvious an Usuhiki Warashi had joined in because the adults would find the number of children had increased when they counted them, but they could never figure out which one was the Usuhiki Warashi. They would also sneak into the family’s futon as they slept, flip over their pillows, pull away the blanket, or play other pranks around the bed.

The legit Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi tilted her head.

“But I thought Youkai weren’t allowed in the casinos. If this Kodama con artist is using one of my subspecies, wouldn’t he be caught almost immediately?”

“Yes, but there were some suspicious-looking people among the casino security guards.”

Intellectual Villages didn’t trust the police much, so armed guards weren’t an uncommon sight. They were armed with weapons that didn’t run afoul of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. For example, a small crossbow or a blackjack made by stuffing small metal balls into a leather bag. They would use those weapons to beat up dangerous animals, crop thieves, or industrial spies.

But this was a casino city.

The guards here seemed even more heavily armed than the normal guards who surrounded eccentric beauty Madoka-chan. Some were even equipped with the kind of mechanical arm used for medical or engineering purposes that increased a human’s strength five or ten times over.

I definitely didn’t want to make an enemy of them, but some stood out even more than the others.

“They had pentagram-like marks on the backs of their gloves and they felt like a mix of a charismatic spiritual leader and a hitman.”

“Mh? That sounds like an Onmyouji to me! I know all about them. If they’re using a pentagram, they must follow the Abe style!! Maybe they’re sarcastic intellectuals who curry the favor of the Imperial Court and the nobles to live the good life!!”

The badger flailed his short arms and legs around while shouting, but…

“Hey, what do you think?” I asked the Zashiki Warashi. “Is it really likely that they have an anti-Youkai unit that specializes in the paranormal?”

“Who can say? They’re probably about the same as a girl with an affinity for the spiritual. They can probably sense that something’s wrong, but I doubt they have the power needed to directly kill a Youkai. If people like that were so easy to get your hands on, the country would have made up for the gaps in its laws by now. Not to mention that those kinds of people belong to organizations that don’t like to make public appearances.”

She was referring to the world centered on Hyakki Yakou.

Seeing people like Hishigami Mai or the Illness Magic User made it easy to forget how hard it was to kill a Youkai, but people like that were few and far between. You couldn’t just hand them some cash and have them guard your casino like a part-timer.

“But this is probably enough to catch anyone cheating. It’s always the humans who use Packages, so they can use their numbers and physical strength to put a stop to it when they sense that something’s wrong.”

“B-but Kodama Ryou is using an Usuhiki Warashi to cheat right now,” pointed out the wet nurse tanuki.

“It’s simple,” I answered with a shrug. “He’s probably bribed them.”

The three animals groaned.

“That would explain why they found us so easily when we snuck in. He must have ordered them to focus on searching for anyone who might harm him.”

I have no idea what method you used, but something tells me that was your own fault.

“Anyway, we’ll have to reveal his Usuhiki Warashi trick on our own. We can’t expect the casino to do anything about it.”

“D-do you have a plan? I really don’t think you can win by leaving it up to luck.”

“I wouldn’t even try if that’s what I was doing.” I gathered up the sake battles filled with tap water. “Zashiki Warashi, give those three the smartphone you borrowed from me. It’s necessary.”

“?”

“Also, you three won’t be going with us. There’s a lot I want you to do instead.”

I rattled off my instructions.

After telling the Zashiki Warashi what she had to do, I turned toward the fox, tanuki, and badger who had started swiping their front paws across the screen to see how it worked.

“And I will of course need your help for this.”

“We will do anything to help the old lady, but we can’t even get inside the casino.”

The badger tilted his head as he spoke, so I replied.

“Not all help has to come from inside the casino.”

Part 9 (Day 10/04 02:41 - 03:00)

If the joker is included in the deck, one of the players must announce it. The announcer’s winnings for that hand will only be 0.8 times normal (with the exception of five of a kind that can only be made with a joker).

If the winner forms their hand after discarding the joker, their winnings will be twice normal.

If a player is caught cheating, they will be penalized twice their bet amount. However, a simple bluff does not qualify as cheating.

Cheating is eliminated by the thorough management of the dealer, but it can also be directly pointed out by an opponent.

But if the loser accuses the winner of cheating and no cheating can be proven, the loser will be penalized one hundred times their bet amount for ruining the game and damaging the winner’s reputation.

If a player does not swap out a single card, their winnings will be 1.5 times normal.

I went over the local rules in my head as I once more threw open the door to the casino that took away almost all of the thirty thousand yen chip I got from the beginner’s luck system. A few people looked down on me as the guest who did not belong yet returned anyway, but I that didn’t matter.

I had only one target: the top-rate poker table that Kodama Ryou still sat at.

“Hi there!”

Just as the dealer was about to deal the cards to the con artist and four other ladies and gentlemen, I called out to them.

I also shoved aside the middle-aged man sitting next to Kodama Ryou, knocking over the cards and chips in the process.

“You… Ha ha. Yeah, you! …You’re Kodama-san, aren’t you? Kodama Ryou! They had a championship to determine the best player in Japan’s four greatest casinos, but why didn’t you join in? That was just child’s play, so if you’d shown up, you could’ve changed history.”

“Hey!” shouted the angry middle-aged man.

Some men in black were positioned by the walls and columns so they could keep a view of the entire floor yet not interrupt the flow of guests. They all began rushing toward me, but not because they thought I was a threat. They probably thought I was here to complain about my previous loss.

They grabbed the back of my neck and my arms, but I still laughed.

“You’re like my hero, so I want to steal your unbeatable secrets with my eyes! I’m not asking to be your apprentice or anything like that, so will you play against me just once. I brought the money I need to bet on it, so can’t you just play one game!?”

The snakeskin con artist slowly closed his eyes.

Eventually, he opened them ever so slightly.

What was he thinking? What was he weighing on the scales?

“Well…”

He made extra sure his voice lacked any kind of displeased distortion like a skipping record.

That was all it took for the men in black’s grip to weaken on my arms.

“Before we talk, could I treat everyone at the table to a drink? I have to do at least that much if we’re robbing them of a game.”

“Oh, yeah. Um, sorry!”

“What do you say, everyone? Will you leave this to me and take a drink to this young man’s future?”

They accepted the con artist’s request with bitter sneers more than with displeasure.

Yes, that’s right.

This is perfect.

I had destroyed a game where money changed hands by the millions and Kodama Ryou was the undefeated player at the table. The gallery had to be hoping he would drown this impolite brat in a hell of debt. Pushed on by that, Kodama Ryou had to be thinking he would “kindly” give me what I wanted and take everything I had to make up for the game I had robbed him.

If he wasn’t willing to ruin a stupid kid’s life for money, he wouldn’t work as a con artist.

But had he realized that the stage was set? There were no brakes on this roller coaster. Once the drop began, he couldn’t back out no matter how ridiculous it got.

If a casino’s top player backed out of a game suggested by a stupid-looking high school boy, he’d be seen as the biggest chicken of them all.

There had to be a type of reputation and trust he wanted to earn even if it meant deceiving everyone.

He needed it to keep the money flowing in from his victims.

“So what do you mean when you say you brought the money you need to bet on the game? I doubt a kid your age has what it takes to sit at this table.”

“Heh. Heh heh. I’m not really sure if I can use it or not.”

With a stiff smile, I clunked my “funds” up onto the table.

“But I’ve got Red Yukata, Black-Haired Beauty, Lovely Nape, and Gorgeous White Hand. I don’t really get it myself, but these are my grampa’s treasure. Is this enough for a game?”

“Oh? The Jinnai Brewery?”

The snakeskin man actually sounded a little surprised at this.

The name was pretty well known, so a stir ran through the ladies and gentlemen in the gallery as well.

“Well, well. You don’t see this every day, but it’s still not quite enough.”

Liar.

I know this is easily enough for two or three games (if they weren’t filled with tap water, of course). You just want to rip off a kid who doesn’t know what it’s worth, don’t you?

“So how about this? Why not play a special game just between the two of us? Let’s keep the dealer and the casino out of this. You want to steal my techniques, so including the other players would only get in the way, wouldn’t it?”

“Y-you’ll do that much for me!?”

That means you don’t have to worry about the other players or the dealer stealing your winnings, doesn’t it?

“Yes, yes. How much do you know about poker?”

“Th-the basics. I’ve played it with some friends in my class. Y’know, you shuffle the cards, deal out five each, and then exchange however many you want.”

“Ha ha. Then I guess you wouldn’t know what Texas Hold ‘em is. Well, we can play the Japanese card game style with five cards each. We’ll exchange cards…”

He snapped his fingers, someone tossed a die over from another table, and he rolled it.

“Okay, we’ll exchange them twice. Is that fine?”

“But then it won’t feel like a real casino game after I came all the way to Goldmine Island. …Oh, I know. Can we use the casino’s rate and local rules?”

“Fine. What should we do about a five of a kind using a joker?”

“Doesn’t matter to me.”

“Then let’s allow it. That makes 53 cards including the joker. Today’s lucky sort is…”

He swung his hand and the dealer spread the cards out on the table face-down before pulling one out.

“Okay, the seven of spades. In this game, a royal flush of spades will be a special hand and the only one that can defeat a five of a kind.”

“Also, I want to see how you use the cards, so can we do away with the raising and calling? Let’s risk it all from the beginning. I won’t get anything by seeing how you fold.”

“Fine. I’ll give you what you want here since it should be an important lesson for you.”

He must have wanted to show how generous he was or to draw in the gallery because he accepted my suggestions surprisingly readily.

“I’m actually pretty happy about this,” he said. “A lot happened on my way to where I am and I even had someone I viewed as a teacher. Seeing you here kind of makes me think I’ve finally arrived where he was. So…”

He smiled thinly and snapped his fingers.

Immediately, the front double-doors opened and several men in black stomped inside.

They were holding something from either side.

“That Zashiki Warashi is your Youkai, isn’t it?”

I could feel unpleasant sweat seeping out on the back of my neck.

The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was bound by what looked like white plastic rope. And not just her arms and legs either. It was wrapped around her torso, her neck, and all of her body like some kind of sick form of torture.

Still smiling, the con artist spoke.

“You see, the casino knows how to take care of Youkai related to fortunes and money.”

He spoke quickly.

The Youkai that should have been invulnerable to blades or bullets was giving me a pleading look.

“They say Zashiki Warashi come from the threshold, below the floor, or below the stone mill. Those seem to have been common places to bury murdered babies. Using that legend, they crush an old stone mill into powder, place it in a furnace, and create glass fiber rope out of it. Not even the Youkai’s great strength can break it.”

“…”

“This! This is how it has to be, boy!”

Kodama Ryou’s raised voice seemed to swallow me up.

It seemed to create a current that swept me away without letting me make any kind of protest.

“If you want to feel the true thrill of a gamble, you must follow a few simple rules of etiquette. First, do not keep any assets in reserve. And second, do not keep any tricks up your sleeve. …How about you bet that Youkai as well? If you don’t, you won’t get any closer to the true essence of gambling.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Now, let’s do as you said and risk it all from the beginning. No raising, no calling, and no wisely folding. Surely you don’t mind. You were the one asking for just that.”

For a moment, truly just a moment, the inside of my forehead felt oddly cold and I felt like I was going to forget everything. I had known this was coming, but my vision still nearly filled with white light.

Yes, I had known this was coming.

In other words…

Yes, yes! I was waiting for this!!

When speaking with Madoka over the phone, she had pointed out the initial problem I would face.

“Shinobu-kun, do you really think an expert cheater will really agree to such an odd game? Con artists tend to be bold but cowardly. They’ll get caught otherwise. And a professional is definitely going to be better at trickery than a high school boy. If you smile with school play level acting skills, he’s going to immediately suspect something is up.”

“Then we can let him figure it out. I just have to set it up so things can continue even if he does.”

I thought back to that strategy meeting and I had to work hard not to let it show on my face.

Kodama Ryou knew how to capture and control a Zashiki Warashi. Even if he had seen through my bluff with the sake bottles, he still wanted to continue the game to get his hands on the Youkai. That was why he had paid less attention to the change from the casino’s usual Texas Hold ‘em rules and the number of card exchanges.

For him, anything was fine as long as he didn’t win so much it was obvious he was cheating. Normal poker only exchanged cards just once, but if he kept getting royal flushes and five of a kinds, people would think he was a little too “lucky”. So as long as it was higher than one, the number could have been three or six for all he cared. That was all he was focusing on.

And that settled it for me.

He really was reliant on the Zashiki Warashi subspecies known as an Usuhiki Warashi. It wasn’t that he had mastered his sleight of hand to godlike levels and then taken one step further to get the help of an Usuhiki Warashi. If you took the Youkai from him, he had nothing left.

The men in black were threatening us with the glass fiber rope made from a stone mill, but that was likely all they had. They weren’t monsters like Hyakki Yakou that could slaughter any Youkai that opposed them. They had built up their foundation around the Usuhiki Warashi and could only deal with that one type of paranormal.

That meant I didn’t need to worry about any other method.

If I could break through the Usuhiki Warashi system, they would fall into the abyss!

“I! Didn’t! Hear! Anything! About! This!”

I noticed the Zashiki Warashi was mouthing protests with even her breasts and crotch tightly and seductively bound.

Well, that’s because I didn’t tell you.

“I! Just! Have! To! Win!”

“Only! Losers! Think! That! Way!”

Heh heh. Truth was, that lazy and glamorous Youkai had given me plenty of reason to resent her. Earlier she had used my smartphone to download the avatar management app used to enter the VR Casino City named Heavy Cruiser Island, so she could have easily bankrupted me. It only seemed right to add on the local rules and keep at it until she was in a sexy predicament. This was a game of chicken!

“Are you done talking it out?” asked Kodama Ryou with some low laughter.

He of course seemed to have some kind of network set up around the casino, but he had let his guard down and assumed the Zashiki Warashi was all I had. When faced with a chance to get a Zashiki Warashi which he could use to cheat and which was more powerful than his Usuhiki Warashi, he had overlooked the other three.

That’s right. The fox, tanuki, and badger.

“Fine! Fine!! …I’m still gonna make a name for myself. I swear… I swear to you I’ll steal your techniques!!”

“You! Had! Better! Remember! This!”

Part 10 (Day 10/04 03:00 - 03:09)

It was a one-on-one game, but we still used a fresh pack of the casino’s cards and the dealer still dealt them to us. Kodama Ryou had suggested it as a way to make things more exciting, but it likely had more to do with his confidence in his means of cheating with an Usuhiki Warashi and the fact that he didn’t want to touch the deck himself and allow people to claim he was cheating that way.

Five cards had already been dealt to me and the dealer slid just as many to Kodama Ryou.

This was my second time in the casino.

The first time I had watched from the second floor as he won multiple games in a row.

“Wow, he’s really winning. But the dealer is handling all the cards and it doesn’t look like he’s doing something as cheap as swapping out cards with identical ones up his sleeve. I don’t see any chance for him to be doing any kind of sleight of hand.”

“Then has he bribed the dealer?” Madoka had asked.

“I doubt it.”

“Why?”

“You can’t see the dealer’s face over the phone, but it’s pale as can be. He looks about to cry. The more Kodama Ryou wins, the more people will suspect the dealer, so I can’t blame him.”

“Then what is it?”

“If he’s using a Youkai’s occult power, it isn’t as simple as seeing his opponent’s cards. He isn’t the type to win by folding at the optimal time. He enjoys building up a powerful hand.”

“Then can he create the cards he needs like a fox or tanuki turning leaves into coins?”

“Or he can freely swap out all of the cards.”

Later, the fox, tanuki, and badger had told me Kodama Ryou was cheating using an Usuhiki Warashi which was a symbol of fortune.

There were no legends about the Usuhiki Warashi “counterfeiting” coins out of leaves.

That Youkai more generally brought fortune and prosperity to the house it lived in, but that was too vague.

That could not have been what he was using.

However, there were stories about the pranks pulled by the Usuhiki Warashi and the Zashiki Warashi. For example, when the children were playing in the yard, an extra one would appear it at some point. The adults could tell there was an extra child by counting them, but they could not tell which one was actually a Youkai.

Is this a Package that mixes in new cards without anyone noticing?

I briefly entertained that idea but then rejected it.

That was only a momentary misunderstanding. Even if a Zashiki Warashi could slip in amongst the children playing in the schoolyard during recess, it could not fully blend in as a classmate. It would eventually be found out and eventually vanish. In a casino where cheating meant instant death, I doubted he would use that trait “as is”.

Which meant…

It isn’t that powerful. It’s a method of mixing in the cards without changing the number.

Their other pranks were sneaking into the futon that someone was sleeping in, flipping over the pillow, and pulling on the blanket, so they all had to do with the bed.

While they could move the pillow or blanket, they could not hide them anywhere. Nor did the sleeper go missing or lose their life.

The Zashiki Warashi was a Youkai that could move a pillow or blanket without changing the “number” and not even their owner could do anything to stop it.

In other words…

He isn’t actually increasing or decreasing the number of cards. He ignores the laws of physics to pull out whatever cards he needs to win and slips them into his own hand. This Package lets him freely swap out the cards.

In that case, he would have complete control over all fifty-three cards, but he wouldn’t be able to directly influence the cards that either I or the impartial dealer could see. If the card changed while we were looking, it would cause a panic.

He himself could only see the five cards in his own hand, so that was risky. He wouldn’t know where the cards he wanted were, so there was a danger of swapping out his opponent’s card while they were looking.

He had to have a safety.

He didn’t know where the cards were, but if it was being observed by someone, the card wouldn’t come to him even if he wanted it.

But other than that, he could get his hands on any of the cards.

He could build his hand from the five he was dealt and any of the cards in the face-down deck the dealer held. He could create as many royal flushes and five of a kinds as he wanted. There was no way to get a fair game out of this.

But…

“Three of diamonds, nine of hearts, three of clubs, jack of hearts, and queen of hearts.”

The atmosphere immediately froze over.

All I had done was give a casual comment with my cards fanned out, but it silenced even the gallery who were ready to taste the sweet nectar of schadenfreude.

“What?” asked Kodama Ryou while blinking in confusion.

“It’s a jinx for good luck. …You said this needs to be a real battle, right? Well, I want to really corner myself here. I want to see what I find if I keep going, so I set myself up. Have I approached your realm now?”

“Well, um, that’s not really what-… Listen. When I rolled the die earlier, we decided to allow two card exchanges, remember? And yet you…”

“Ha ha! That would be too boring!!”

I was clearly bad at this, but anyone could tell I was looking down on him.

“Okay, I revealed everything, so what are your cards?”

“Do you really think I need to tell you? I am going to play normally and-…”

“Oh, so you’re backing down?”

I cut him off.

If I’d used this tone of voice with an upperclassman at school, I could hardly have complained if they punched me.

“No, no. Don’t worry about it. It makes sense. I was the one that chose to reveal my cards, so you do your best with your method. That’s what I want to learn from, after all. You hunch forward, carefully hide your cards from view, and win that way.”

“Ah?”

“I’m saying not to worry about it. You know this is a serious match too, right? So who knows who’ll win. It’s entirely possible you’ll lose everything to the amateur kid and break down crying. If you’d rather hunch over like that to avoid the possibility of having an embarrassing cellphone photo spread around the world, then that’s just how you want to live your life. You can do this at your own pace, teacher.”

I heard a quiet wave of laughter and remembered what Madoka had said.

“Con artists will do whatever they can to nonchalantly escape any disadvantageous situation, but it might be surprisingly easy to get him caught with no way to escape.”

“Eh? Why? What do you mean?”

“Think about it. Even if he’s surrounded by his supporters, how many do you think are actually rooting for him from the bottom of their hearts? The place has to be filled with people whose smiles hide a desire to see him pathetically crawling on the ground. A champion who always wins is boring. Anyone hanging around a casino to see others ascend to heaven or be cast into hell will want to see a hard-fought battle, not a stable victory.”

I could not help but remember that comment.

I was in enough of a trance to ignore the game before my eyes and lose myself in the past.

Kodama’s eyes rolled around to secretly view the passionate and sneering gallery.

“When did you get them on your side?” he asked.

“What are you talking about? I’m only looking at you right now.”

For some reason, my direct response received a mouthed protest from the turtle shell bondage Indoor Youkai instead of from the con artist.

Ahh, a wonderful view no matter where I look. I’m in such a good mood!!

This game had begun as a chance for the top player to crush a conceited brat and the gallery had wanted to see me suffer.

However, people’s hearts changed easily.

They would soon realize whose defeat would be more exciting and enjoyable.

Kodama Ryou clenched his teeth and threw his cards face-up on the poker table.

“Queen of diamonds, king of diamonds, king of clubs, six of spades, and king of hearts!”

“Oh? You were dealt a three of a kind? Swap out one and you could get four of a kind or a full house. Swap out two and you could even get five of a kind. I would expect no less of you, Kodama-san. You didn’t need to hide that at all.”

But this would prevent him from swapping out the five cards in his hand.

The only cards he could use his Usuhiki Warashi Package on were the ones in the dealer’s deck.

And his biggest chance was coming.

“Then let’s get on to the first exchange.”

He made that overly dramatic statement as if challenging me or trying to overturn the atmosphere that was threatening to envelop him.

His voice dropped almost to a whisper.

“If I win here, I will take everything from you: your money and that Youkai. …Don’t forget that. I’ll give you a nice lesson, but this is still a legit game played in a casino.”

…

Don’t let him draw you in. Don’t let him.

Don’t look down at the bottom of the cliff. Remembering the risk is meaningless.

Shrug and laugh it off! Laugh and keep moving!!

“Ha…ha ha. Don’t try anything too blatant like exchanging all five cards and just so happening to get a royal flush. I think the dealer might stab you if you did.”

I gave one last warning.

He remained smiling, but now exchanging all five cards would be suicide. He would almost certainly be accused of cheating.

Which meant…

If he has any sense, he’ll remove the queen of diamonds and six of spades and give himself a king of spades and a joker for a five of a kind with the four kings and a joker. The only way I can hope to match that is with a royal flush of spades, but that will be impossible if he has the king of spades. And unlike with other hands, he doesn’t have to worry about me getting a five of a kind with a higher number. After all, you need a joker for five of a kind and there’s only one of those in the deck.

When planning with Madoka, we had obviously not been able to predict what cards we would get, so I had to make up the rest on the fly.

The protection of money goddess Kotemitsu Madoka-chan had just about run out.

Figuring out the rules behind Kodama Ryou’s cheating was fine, but that alone wasn’t enough. No matter how much we planned and prepared, I still ultimately had to defeat him on my own.

Kotemitsu Madoka’s plan and the help of the Zashiki Warashi and the fox, tanuki, and badger waiting outside would be of no help unless I overcame this.

If I lost, I would sink and all would be lost.

Slowly, I took a deep breath and spoke.

“Then two. The three of diamonds and three of clubs.”

“Ha ha!!”

The snakeskin guy laughed loudly and even clapped his hands.

“C’mon, now. I already have three kings, so why are you getting rid of your two of a kind? That’s just going to leave you with nothing. Or do you think you’re giving yourself a handicap? Or maybe you’re trying to provoke me?”

“This is fine. Two threes would too boring.”

“That leaves you with…oh. The nine of hearts, jack of hearts, and queen of hearts. Which means… Ha ha! Don’t tell me you’re trying to get the ten and king of hearts for a royal flush or maybe the eight and ten for a straight flush! That’s getting a little too greedy!!”

I didn’t really think I could get that.

After all, he could freely control the remaining cards in the deck.

And sure enough, the two cards I was dealt were…

“What, you’re not going to go out of the way to announce these ones? Ha ha. Of course not!! You threw away your two of a kind and got nothing in return. Besides, that hand is only so valuable because it’s so hard to get.”

“Enough nastiness. Just keep playing.”

“Fine then. I’ll take two as well and get rid of the queen of diamonds and six of spades. Yes, that’s the standard course of action.”

That meant he really was after a five of a kind using the four kings and the joker. Not even a royal flush of hearts could beat that.

I could feel my heart racing even faster.

Was this really the way to go?

Had there been something else I could have done?

Doubts bubbled up inside my head, but the mine cart had already started rolling down the hill. There was no taking back the life placed inside it. I could only bet on this. I could only keep charging forward!

But there was a fork in the mine cart’s track.

If he completed his five of a kind during this first card exchange, I was done for.

But if he gathered one card at a time to complete it on the second exchange, I still had a way out, even if just barely.

Which would it be?

Which way would it roll?

“Kee hee.”

I heard laughter.

The ominous sound of teeth scraping together hurt my ears.

“Kee hee hee. Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.”

“…”

With his head lowered, the snakeskin guy laughed.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

“This was a fun little game.”

No announcement could have been worse.

I felt like a cold hand was squeezing each and every organ in my body, one at a time.

The whispering of the gallery grew distant.

The man’s grinning face looked like it was made of melted wax and I immediately realized something.

The fox, tanuki, and badger must have seen this exact same expression when the patron they cared about more than anyone had been cast into the depths of the abyss.

“Perhaps I should call this riichi. I now have the king of spades in my hand. As long as I get the joker, I’ll have a five of a kind. Even if you do get a royal flush of hearts, you can’t win. And even if you forcibly try for the hand with spades instead, I already have the king of spades, so you can’t complete the one hand that can beat a five of a kind!!”

But.

But!

But!!!!!

“Heh.”

He’d done it.

He’d actually done it.

Instead of ending this on the first card exchange, that idiot was waiting until the second. He had likely thought getting his hand on that first exchange would still seem enough like cheating that he needed to get one of his two cards at a time. And that unnecessary concern had given me the chance I needed to turn this around!

“Heh heh. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“…? What? What is so-…”

“What’s so funny? Your little announcement just now.”

I could drop the act now.

I didn’t need to keep grinning like an idiot and speaking more politely than I was used to.

I completely changed my tone of voice.

Had he been confronted with so many unusual things that he had wanted a little bit of stability?

Or had his ability to control the cards I was dealt caused him to let his guard down? Deciding the number of card exchanges with a roll of a die had likely been “insurance” against doubts if he won too brilliantly after only the one exchange.

Either way, it was now my turn to go on the offensive!

“After all, I have the king of spades. I exchanged my cards first, so it makes no sense for you to have the king of spades in your hand.”

“What..?”

“Oh, c’mon. Why do you look so surprised? With a look like that, you would almost think you had known from the beginning what cards we would be getting.”

Kodama Ryou seemed to focus more on what I said than on my tone of voice or my attitude.

He seemed to be saying he had seen through my farce and that no one cared about that.

“Don’t make baseless accusations!! There’s only one king of spades and it’s in my hand, so you couldn’t possibly have it. Anyone could tell you that!”

“Fine then. How about we both show our hands at the same time?”

I waved my fanned-out cards toward him while making my suggestion and looking down on him.

“But what will happen then?”

“What do you mean?”

“What will happen to the game if the king of spades shows up in both of our hands? By the way, do you remember my hand? I’m going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts, so the king of spades wouldn’t help me in the slightest. I have no reason to cheat and slip one into my hand.”

“…”

“But what about you? Oh, well I guess that goes without saying. You’re after a five of a kind using the four kings and the joker. You’re obviously the one who benefits from having the king of spades in his hand.”

I slammed one hand down on the poker table as I threatened him.

Yes, and I slammed my five cards down as I did so.

“So what will you do? Are you going to call this game off to see if one of us has been cheating?”

“…!!!!!!”

Most likely, quite a few things were spinning through Kodama Ryou’s head.

Had something gone wrong with his Usuhiki Warashi card-swapping Package?

Had an amateur high school boy slipped in a card he was hiding up his sleeve?

Was there only the one king of spades and I was only bluffing?

But he had a way of secretly checking on the truth.

Yes.

I had slammed my cards face-down on the table, so no one could see them.

That meant he could swap them out with his Usuhiki Warashi Package. By swapping out my cards and his cards, he could quickly determine whether I was bluffing or not.

But would he really take the bait?

He was sure to remember which two cards were the ones I had been dealt. By swapping them with two in his hand, he could determine whether I had a king of spades or not.

But that would mean getting rid of his nearly-completed five of a kind. He could swap out cards but not increase or decrease their number, so he had to break up his hand to use that paranormal power.

He had one unneeded card still, but to be absolutely sure, he would have to swap out two. Either way, he would lose one of the cards he needed.

What would he do?

What would happen?

What would the snakeskin con artist choose?

“You got me.”

Kodama Ryou casually shrugged.

“I give up. I lied to shake you up a bit, but I never thought you had the actual card.”

“…!?”

It can’t be!!

I quickly checked the cards I had placed face-down on the table.

He had made the switch.

One of the five had transformed into an unfamiliar king of spades!

“Now that we’ve established you have the king of spades, can we get on with the game?”

He threw away his five of a kind?

Is he going for four of a kind with the joker now!?

And as I had explained myself, the king of spades was only a hindrance for me since I was going for one or the other of the highest two straight flushes of hearts.

He had worked through my accusation and stayed on the path to a powerful hand while also crushing my own possibilities.

And since I had said myself that I had the king of spades, I had no choice but to accept this unwanted gift.

“Now that we’re back on track, it’s time for the second card exchange.”

Kodama Ryou grinned like he was already imagining himself playing his four of a kind against my worthless hand.

This would end with the next exchange.

I could not fold here, so it would all be over soon.

“As before, you can go first.”

Part 11 (Day 10/04 03:09 - 03:20)

The Usuhiki Warashi Package allowed one to freely swap out any of the fifty-three cards on the table.

However, they would notice something was wrong if they tried to swap out a card being viewed by their opponent or a third party. That meant they could only use any face-down cards or the five in their own hand.

They did not know where any card was on the table until they used the Package.

Just by thinking about the card they wanted, the card would be automatically brought to the user’s hand. They could also force an unwanted card onto their opponent.

If the card happened to be viewed by their opponent or a third party, a safety would activate and stop the swap.

Based on my observations, those seemed to be the details of the Package that Kodama Ryou was using. Some of that might not have been exactly right, but it had to be on the right track.

“Two cards.”

“Heh heh heh!!”

As soon as I made my announcement, the snakeskin guy burst out laughing.

“Oh, oh? Oh, oh, oh, oh!? I can’t be sure, but what is this? I thought you were going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts? You had three of the needed cards, so what’s going on? Are you throwing away the two cards you got in the first exchange and getting two new ones? So you gained nothing at all and have no real chance of winning? What could possibly be going on here!?”

“…”

I did not need to answer.

I simply tossed the two face-down cards toward the dealer.

Kodama Ryou showed no interest in the cards I was dealt in return.

“Then I’ll take one. Just one. I actually have two I don’t need, but there’s no point in exchanging the other one,” said the laughing con artist. “Oh, and you can’t change anything with baseless accusations after the fact. Just to be clear, I will get the joker and complete my four of a kind. That will end this. No matter what anyone says, the result can’t be changed after the second exchange is complete. It saddens me to think you can’t use those provocations of yours anymore. Here, one card. I’ll use this joker to kill you.”

He slid a random card toward the dealer and another was slid back toward him.

If that was the joker, he would have an irregular four of a kind made up of three kings and the wild card.

He was exactly right.

The old lady whose pension was stolen, the granddaughter suffering from a created illness, and most importantly my own life would all be over.

However…

“……………………………………………………………Huh……………………………………………………………?”

I heard a voice.

The con artist’s suit and shoes were covered in snakeskin and he always had a thin smile on his face, but a close look showed his fingertips were trembling. That tremor travelled up his arms and infected his entire body. Finally, his chair began to rattle below him.

“Wh-wh-why?”

“Did you see something strange?”

“Why!? How could I possibly have not gotten the joker!!!???”

Only after shouting did he realize what he had said. He cautiously looked to the gallery, but that no longer mattered.

The game was set from the moment he finished his second exchange.

“It’s not surprising you didn’t get the joker.”

I spoke casually because his life wasn’t worth anything with more weight to it.

“After all, it’s right here in my hand. And the system was made so it wouldn’t swap out a card your opponent or a third party was looking at, right?”

“…What?”

“And without the joker, all you have is three kings.”

As I spoke, I threw my fanned-out cards face-up on the table.

“I have the ace of diamonds, the joker, the ace of hearts, the king of spades, and the eight of spades. With the joker, that’s three aces.”

“What!!!???”

It looked like the con artist wasn’t the only one surprised.

A stir ran through the gallery as well.

“In poker, the cards get stronger from two to king, but the ace beats the king, right? That makes my three of a kind better than yours. The game is over, little boy.”

“No… Not that!! What kind of hand is that!?”

“C’mon. I had the joker from the very beginning and it isn’t that rare to end up with two aces. I don’t see anything wrong with this.”

“B-but…you…but! You were going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts. You couldn’t get a hand like this after the two card exchanges!”

“Yes, how could this have happened?”

There was no real reason to answer.

I only had to point out the result.

“This is over, so pull out your black card. Pull out that magic limitless card. You need to pay me my winnings. I bet a Zashiki Warashi on top of this junmai daiginjo from Noukotsu Village’s Jinnai Brewery, so I’ll be taking quite a lot.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

As the snakeskin guy blankly listened to me, he finally shouted a few words as if life had returned to him.

“That makes no sense.”

“It’s nothing compared to how much you’ve been winning around here.”

“But…this is…but!! Everyone here saw it, right? At the very beginning, you revealed your hand!! What more proof do you need? You clearly cheated somehow!! There’s no other way you could have ended up with that!”

“…Now you’ve said it.”

I grinned.

This was probably the first time I’d smiled in front of him.

Those were exactly the words I had wanted to hear.

I snapped my fingers and made a show of checking with the gallery and dealer.

“You there, you heard what he said, didn’t you?”

“Eh? What?”

“Dealer!! He said it. Check the rules. This fits the conditions perfectly!!”

Hearing that, Kodama Ryou began to tremble even more.

And he looked more surprised about the shaking than anyone.

“Wh-wha-what!? What have you done!?”

“You stepped on a landmine. Check for yourself!!”

Yes.

This casino had its own local rules:

If the joker is included in the deck, one of the players must announce it. The announcer’s winnings for that hand will only be 0.8 times normal (with the exception of five of a kind that can only be made with a joker).

If the winner forms their hand after discarding the joker, their winnings will be twice normal.

If a player is caught cheating, they will be penalized twice their bet amount. However, a simple bluff does not qualify as cheating.

Cheating is eliminated by the thorough management of the dealer, but it can also be directly pointed out by an opponent.

But if the loser accuses the winner of cheating and no cheating can be proven, the loser will be penalized one hundred times their bet amount for ruining the game and damaging the winner’s reputation.

If a player does not swap out a single card, their winnings will be 1.5 times normal.

“Whaaaaaaaat!!!???”

“You owe me one hundred times as much now. Everyone here can clearly tell I won and you lost. And now you’re accusing me of cheating to try to overturn that. This is just hard to watch, you fraud. You took a step too far because you were still looking down on me even after losing.”

“No, but, no!! I proved your hand made no sense! The loser can’t be penalized for revealing how the winner was cheating. …Guards!! Search him!! Hurry!!”

Kodama Ryou was as out of control as a toy chimpanzee with cymbals, but I simply raised my hands.

That seemed to clue the chimpanzee in that something was wrong.

As a guard began to check me, Kodama Ryou questioned me.

“H-how? How can you stay so calm?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Because unlike you, I wasn’t cheating.”

I grinned.

“Think back. Or have you altered your own memories? When the cards were first dealt, I did indeed reveal my hand, but all I did was tell you. You had to take my word for it. I didn’t actually show you my cards.”

“…Ah!!”

“You actually showed your cards, but that was probably to steal back people’s focus by doing something with an even greater impact. That makes it simple, doesn’t it? I didn’t actually have the cards I claimed I did.”

My real hand had been two threes, an ace, a joker, and some other useless card. That was actually a three of a kind with a chance for a full house, but it left me with no chance of defeating the snakeskin man and his ability to manipulate all of the hidden cards. Throwing away my two threes then had taken a lot of courage.

The real danger had been when he had sent me the king of spades. The Usuhiki Warashi Package could swap out cards and it still scares me to think what would have happened if he had swapped out the joker or an ace in place of the useless king.

He had to have gotten a card that was clearly not one of those I had announced. If he hadn’t thought it was one of the cards I got during the first exchange, he might have seen through my trick.

I had barely slipped through, but I had done it and won.

Finally, the man wearing gloves with a pentagram on them shook his head.

“Nothing.”

“You bastard! Check more carefully!! There has to…has to be something!!”

“There isn’t. And a simple bluff doesn’t count as cheating. The local rules say so.”

I made that clear just to be sure. The guard had to be allowing the Usuhiki Warashi. Had the con artist made sure the man wouldn’t say anything unnecessary?

I clapped my hands twice and announced Kodama Ryou’s execution.

“Now, then. It’s time you paid up my normal winnings times one hundred. Pull out your black card so I can take everything you’ve got.”

Cheers exploded from the gallery like after the winning point of a soccer match.

This was the moment where one side laughed and the other crumbled.

Part 12 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:20 - 03:33)

Meanwhile, the fox, tanuki, and badger were waiting behind the casino.

After the Zashiki Warashi had been used as a decoy (without being told), Kodama Ryou and the guards had assumed nothing more was hiding out there.

The three of them were looking at the smartphone they had borrowed from the Zashiki Warashi.

“It says to go through with it.”

“W-will this really work?” worriedly asked the wet nurse tanuki.

“Hmm.” The fox tilted his head. “He explained this ahead of time, but I have trouble with those Western terms. Let’s see, it was Fleming’s…”

“Right hand. The left hand is used for the theory behind railguns.”

The fox grabbed at the badger for that bit of know-it-all-ism, but the tanuki stopped them before an actual fistfight broke out.

“Whatever the theory behind it, you know what to do, right? That’s all that matters.”

“Yes, that makes sense. But…”

“What else is there?”

“Can we really get back at loathsome Kodama Ryou with this children’s toy?”

At that point, they heard a girl giggling quietly.

“Who goes there!?”

The fox quickly turned around and saw someone running away.

It was a girl of twelve or thirteen. She wore a short mini-yukata with the shoulders slipped down like a courtesan, so her strange Japanese outfit looked something like a tube top dress with a tight skirt.

“Was that the Usuhiki Warashi? This isn’t good. Is that subspecies going to report on our actions!?”

“N-no,” said the badger to allay the wet nurse tanuki’s fears. “I think this is the opposite. That Usuhiki Warashi… That Zashiki Warashi subspecies is a Youkai of prosperity and she’s leaving the casino and thus her owner. That means only one thing for Kodama Ryou’s future.”

Part 13 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:33 - 03:45)

“What are you waiting for? The guest gave you his card, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but I’m trying to make the pre-transaction confirmation.”

Kodama Ryou stood in a soundless world.

No, there was actually applause and a deluge of other sounds enveloping him, but it all seemed to so distant to him. His mind was in no state to comprehend the voices as voices, so it washed over him as mere noise.

It came out to several hundred million.

He was going to lose a full tenth of his total assets.

That was painful enough, but losing to an amateur high school boy was even worse.

“Heh heh… Heh heh heh heh heh heh…”

“N-no, wait, Miss Zashiki Warashi. We can talk this out! If humans and Youkai actually try to talk, they can get along! This was a necessary part of defeating that damn con artist, so- bgchah!?”

“Hey, Shinobu. Do you know what a Cobra Twist is? How about a Frankensteiner?”

“No, wait! You shouldn’t do a move like that in a yuka- gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!???”

As soon as she was released from the rope, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata began performing harsh pro wrestling moves and the high school boy could do nothing to escape them. Yes, he was only a kid. Normally, he would never have been able to deceive a professional (con artist) like Kodama Ryou.

His actions and words had been as exaggerated as a theatrical performance.

Kodama Ryou should have looked at it all more rationally. The boy had made a larger lie to hide a smaller lie. It was the same as scattering spices along a path to trick the police dog’s sense of smell.

It had been crudely done, but Kodama Ryou had taken it too lightly.

He had not followed through far enough to realize the boy had put together a plan where part of it was meant to be discovered.

And as a result…

(No.)

Once his thoughts reached that point, his Noh mask expression twisted.

(Something doesn’t fit. He blatantly said he was going to ruin me. Was that extreme statement really only a bluff meant to throw me off his scent? What if it meant something else…?)

Kodama Ryou lived for thrills.

When he had money, he had lots of it. When he had none, he had none at all. His scams, gambles, and art auctions were always an all-or-nothing affair and this was clearly during one of his “all” phases.

Even if that one hundred times penalty was added on, it would not take everything from him.

It would only rob him of a tenth of his money.

(There’s something more.)

Sweat dripped down his face.

(He isn’t done yet!! There has to be something more!!)

Suddenly, he heard a human voice.

“It doesn’t seem to be the computer. There’s been some strange noise on the line for a while now.”

“If the payment is slowed, we’ll lose the guests’ trust. Hurry up and figure out what’s causing it and take care of it.”

The black card.

That special credit card had no credit limit.

They were having trouble during the confirmation phase.

There was some unknown noise on the line.

“A-ahh.”

Kodama Ryou figured it out.

It all fit together.

There was a single way of robbing him of all his money regardless of how the game turned out.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

He screamed at the top of his lungs and everyone’s focus turned toward him. But that was the least of his worries. He ran over to the foolish casino worker, punched him in the face, and grabbed back his black card. He took it back.

After hearing the commotion, the guards in black ran over.

Kodama Ryou pointed at the blond high school boy being beaten up by the Zashiki Warashi who had been released from her glass fiber bonds.

“Skimming!! He… He was waiting for the moment when money was transferred using my unlimited black card. He was trying to steal my card number and PIN!!”

“…”

“That way he could take all of my money regardless of how the game ended!! The strange noise during the confirmation is the proof! C-c’mon, hurry. Arrest him!! Protect my money from-…!!!!”

After shouting and shouting, he suddenly trailed off.

No one – not the gallery, not the dealer, and not the guards – was listening to him. His words were reaching them, but they were not paying any attention to them. Some shrugged and some sighed.

And then the blond high school boy formed a gun with one hand while having his teary-eyed head pushed into one of the glamorous Zashiki Warashi’s breasts by a headlock.

With a beautiful woman in one arm, he aimed the triumphant gesture at Kodama Ryou.

And he fired some powerful words.

“…Now you’ve said it.”

“Ah.”

“After everything is over, the loser has accused the winner of cheating. …Really? If you can’t produce any proof, you’ll get another one hundred times penalty. And two of those penalties on top of each other isn’t two hundred times. One hundred times one hundred is ten thousand. You understand the situation, don’t you?”

He was already losing a tenth of his total assets.

So if that was multiplied by one hundred…

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

Kodama Ryou had determined that the boy had used a large lie to hide a smaller lie.

That had not been entirely wrong.

However, he had underestimated the scale of what the blond high school boy was trying to take from him.

Part 14 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:45 – 04:01)

Incidentally, the Youkai hiding behind the casino had done something quite simple.

Jinnai Shinobu had given them the following advice ahead of time:

“Look, it’s right here. This is the wiring panel. It looks like they’re using metal wires instead of fiber optic, which is lucky. This comes from money-obsessed Madoka, so it’s gotta be right.”

“Understood. If we tear these to shreds, it’ll be a huge problem for the casino, right!? Then leave this to me and my wonderful claws!!”

“You foolish fox. The point is to interfere without damaging it.”

He had then pulled out a children’s toy.

“Have you heard of Fleming and his right and left hand rules?”

“Is he some important Westerner? Never heard of him!!”

“Don’t look so proud of that. His right hand rule goes like this. Say a wire is passing through a spring. Well, when power passes through the wire, it creates a magnetic field around the wire. And it’s based on this line.”

“?”

“The flow of electricity and the surrounding magnetic field are connected. Sending electricity through creates a magnetic field and creating a magnetic field around the wire creates an electric current.”

“What does that mean?”

“If you rub a powerful magnet up against it, you can disturb the signal running through the wire without cutting it. I’ll secretly send you an email to tell you when to start. After the game is over, we’ll give that con artist a lovely surprise.”

“Let’s do this!!”

“R-right! Leave it to a wet nurse tanuki like me!!”

“Hey, fox, are you sure this will work!?”

And thus the fox, tanuki, and badger interfered with the high-speed communications without leaving a mark on the cable and made Kodama Ryou suspect someone was skimming his black card’s number and PIN.

But as stated, the nondestructive magnetic method had not left any obvious marks. And of course, the Youkai had left by the time the guards in black had come to investigate.

And when they found no evidence, who would their suspicions turn to?

The frightening ten thousand times penalty said it all.

Part 15 (Day 10/04 04:01 - 06:30)

“Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!”

It was time for a party!

I remembered I had yet to eat any dinner and it was somehow four in the morning already, so a party was the only answer.

Time! To! Eat!!

Afterwards, we all (although I was the only non-Youkai of the bunch) rented out the second story of a club until morning and clinked together small bottles of cider. The glass table was covered in fried chicken, French fries, pepperoncino, and other greasy foods you would never think to eat at four in the morning.

I was aware this seemed ridiculously out of place, but shockingly, this was the cheapest plan available on Goldmine Island. A tiny-little restaurant could actually be more expensive, so you could see how screwed-up the casino island’s sense of money was. They didn’t have any normal family restaurants or karaoke boxes.

“U-um,” nervously began the wet nurse tanuki. “Should we really be doing this? The money we took from Kodama Ryou belonged to people he tricked across the country.”

“Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine. We took as much as we could from his black card. We were at a table with a rate as high as four to five million, the Zashiki Warashi was added on top of that, and then came the fearsome ten thousand times penalty. That had to be far more than he’d every stolen. The con artist is going to be in a hell of debt now. We can still pay everyone back after taking a bit off the top to pay for our trouble.”

“Oh? If we have extra, shouldn’t you give the victims back even more? For example, you could give them enough to pay for their sick granddaughter’s surgery in another country.”

The fox, tanuki, and badger fell silent for a while. They thought about what that meant and then silently lowered their heads.

“Stop that. We would have messed up somewhere without the information on the Usuhiki Warashi. And you were the ones that set up the final trick with the magnet, so we’re even here! The Zashiki Warashi and I just need this dinner…or is it a midnight snack? Or breakfast? Anyway, we’ll just eat as much as we want and then you all can return the stolen money to its rightful owners. So let’s get eating and drinking!!”

That must have cleared away their worries because the celebration really started afterwards. Foxfire flew around, the tanuki got on the table and beat her stomach like a drum, and the badger was entirely focused on mixing a ton of toppings in a bowl to create a badger udon. We were all doing different things.

“You are a crazy young man. You might be better at deceiving people than us.”

“Eh heh heh. It all began when I climbed the maple tree behind the house and transformed into the moon because the wife of the house was sad that it was raining on the fifteenth night.”

“There’s a historical play based off of us three, you know? But the director was clueless and changed the badger to a dog because he thought a badger was too confusing.”

After at most five minutes, we would find ourselves unable to settle down and would raise our bottles of cider again.

“Well, I don’t really get any of this, but cheers!!”

We repeated the process twenty or thirty times.

There were no problems.

We had taken all the money from Kodama Ryou, the old woman who had collapsed from worry and the sick granddaughter would have what they needed to recover, and all of the victims around the country were guaranteed all of their money back. That money had been left with an accountant Madoka knew. I didn’t know the details of gift taxes and whatever else, so I could only leave that up to a specialist. And I could trust someone a friend introduced more than I could someone completely unknown.

So if there was nothing else, this would all end with the happiest ending possible.

Yes.

If there was nothing else.

Part 38

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