Volume 5, Notice//(4/9)
“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 ever 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 16 (Day 10/04 06:30 - 06:58)
“..........................................................................................................................................Ahh.”
“Shinobu.”
Only once the glamorous Zashiki Warashi called out to me did I realize I was resting on the glass table.
It seemed I had fallen asleep for a bit.
We had had a hell of a party, but I hadn’t had any alcohol. When I thought about it, I realized I hadn’t slept since the airplane ride the day before. I had forgotten thanks to the extreme tension of the poker match against Kodama Ryou, but the weariness may have rushed back as soon as that tension vanished.
The three animal Youkai were asleep on the sofa or the floor and the Zashiki Warashi pulled the smartphone from her cleavage and checked he time.
“If we don’t get back to the inn soon, we might miss breakfast.”
“My dad would probably get mad if I missed two meals in a row. But, ugh. Will I even have room for breakfast if we head back now?”
Sleeping a bit may have actually made things worse because I felt an oozing sense of tingling acid rising from my stomach. This was the problem with eating so much greasy food.
I slowly got up and called out to the other Youkai.
“Hey, fox, tanuki, badger. It’s time to wake up. We rented the place until morning, so if we stay any longer, they’ll charge us extra.”
“Mh? Did I fall asleep?”
The three of them got up while rubbing their eyes and then left the club’s VIP room with the Zashiki Warashi and me. There were still quite a few people on the normal dance floor. They didn’t look like the type to play video games, but they seemed pretty interested in cellphone avatars. They were all discussing the VR Casino City’s friend registration, costume trading, or virtual land sales.
Palm trees grew alongside the wide roads on this island, but the air was nice and chilly this early in the morning.
With the intense morning sunlight replacing the decorative casino lights, a sleepy atmosphere finally began to set in. Shiny, polished luxury sports cars drove by every now and then, but the drivers’ clothing didn’t match the cars. They were probably from a valet service and the actual owner was taking a limousine back to their inn with a young, drunk woman.
“I was expecting nothing but Italian and German cars on a casino island, but there’s a surprising number of Japanese ones.”
“That’s because Japan has some of the top brands for hybrids and electric cars. Teihin’s complete carbon frame car had a rush of preorders despite costing two or three hundred million yen.”
“Why do you know so much about this? You downloaded a stupidly expensive racing game app in my name or something, didn’t you?”
The three animal Youkai intended to leave Goldmine Island and return to Shikoku. They hadn’t come as tourists, so now that Kodama Ryou had been dealt with, they wanted to get back to their owner as soon as possible.
The three of them waved their short arms (or front legs?) as they left and the Zashiki Warashi and I started for the inn on the opposite side of Goldmine Island’s mountain.
“Shinobu, I’m not sure we’ll make it back in time for breakfast if we walk.”
“I got enough from those three to take a taxi, so we can hail a limousine if we see one.”
I had thought we would find one if we waited by the major road, but all of the limousines already had customers. It seemed we had hit the rush taking people back to the inns.
The Indoor Youkai gave a disappointed sigh as the limousines drove back and forth and my cellphone suddenly began to ring from my pocket.
I pulled it out and checked the screen, but I didn’t recognize the number.
“I apologize for calling so early in the morning. This is Okazaki from National Flight Airline’s Lost Baggage Management Center. Is this Mr. Jinnai Shinobu?”
“Oh, yes, it is.”
“I have a report concerning the baggage you lost while taking Flight 5511 yesterday. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but your travel bag has been safely located and we would appreciate it if you could pick it up at our airport counter at your soonest convenience.”
“Eh? Oh, my bag? You found it!?”
“It has already been transported to the airport, so you can pick it up immediately if you wish. Just to be certain, we will need to confirm your identity at the counter, so please bring some form of ID with you.”
Some form of ID?
What would work? I don’t have a motorcycle license and I didn’t bring my passport since we weren’t leaving the country.
“Um, would my student ID work?”
“Ah ha ha. I would need to be a little more official than that. For example, a driver’s license or insurance card.”
An insurance card, huh?
Does my mom have mine?
As I wondered that, I saw an electrical car moving slowly along the road.
I casually glanced over at the slow black Japanese sports car from the sidewalk.
But then my eyebrows rose.
There was no one in the driver’s seat.
And before I could wonder why, the sports car seemed to swell out from within as it exploded from quite nearby.
Part 17 (Day 10/04 06:58 - 07:10)
My consciousness briefly but undeniably blanked out.
By the time I realized I had spent those few seconds in the air, I had flown two or three meters and landed on the sidewalk.
“G-gbh!? Ggah!!”
After a short delay, I heard the high-pitched sound of windows shattering on the stores lining the street.
I tried to check on the situation, but my vision kept shaking and wouldn’t settle down. My arms and legs were trembling, so I couldn’t get up either.
What?
What the hell is going on!?
My mind was unsteady and my senses were ruled by the strange stench of the rising smoke. It was different from gasoline. I also sensed distant screams and something like camera flashes.
And despite it all, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was standing there no different from normal.
“I can’t say I’m surprised that you instinctually tried to use me as a shield, Shinobu.”
“Well, you’re standing there triumphantly after a close-range explosion, so I’d say I made the right decision.”
Even after more than ten seconds had passed, I still couldn’t stand up.
I somehow managed to shake my head and got my eyes to focus.
I could tell someone was approaching us from beyond the black smoke.
Fire...fighters?
That’s what I assumed since the men wore shiny silver fire-resistant suits, but a powerful tug soon reached my arm.
“Wh-what are you doing, Zashiki Warashi?”
historical
“How long has it been since the explosion?” she asked casually. “It can’t have been more than a minute. Even for a small island, this was too fast. But this gives them the perfect opportunity to hide their identities while taking away the victim.”
“Wait a second. You mean...?”
“There’s no time for questions.”
Looking truly annoyed, the Zashiki Warashi grabbed me under each arm and started dragging me away. The supposed firefighters’ shoulders twitched and they began racing toward us more quickly.
The Zashiki Warashi finally placed me over her shoulder like a sack of rice and ran into an alley-l-->>