Debt Settlement Game I

—It's been a few days since then.

Kinji sighed as he walked up the stairs leading to his classroom floor. Pausing for a moment, he heard a ruckus coming from his classroom.

"?" Tilting his head to the side, Kinji tried to recall if any significant event had happened yesterday or the day before, 'Hmm?' but nothing came to mind.

"Well… might just be my imagination."

His voice trailed off with a casual shrug as he walked towards his classroom door, sliding it open and being greeted by the sight of some students surrounding a raven-haired girl.

"What are you talking about, house pet? We're here to laugh at you!"

"Nobody's worried about you, mittens."

"Your loser cat genes might rub off on us—"

'Hmm… this scene,' It's a familiar sight. Ah, yes, this scene had occurred only a few days ago, with Mary. But now, instead of Mary, it was with a different person.

Someone very familiar. "Huh? Yumeko?" Kinji muttered as he tilted his head lightly starring speechlessly before approaching from behind the girls and lightly patting one of their shoulders.

"Excuse me."

"Hah, who the f—" The girl turned back, only to shrink back in fear upon seeing Kinji's expression, before yelling out an "—Eeep!" 

Kinji sighed, observing their reaction, before closing his eyes. "Scram."

Without much said, the girls immediately ran away, leaving both Kinji and Yumeko together. "Now then…" Turning towards Yumeko, Kinji raised his head a little with a not-so-friendly smile.

"Would you mind explaining what's going on?" Yumeko sharply turned her face to the side, denying any sort of eye contact with the boy. "Oh? You're not going to say?" Kinji said narrowing his eyes at her.

Yumeko turned to Kinji with the brightest smile she could offer. "I lost to the student council~nya. And now I have 300 million yen in debt, nya." Yumeko curled her hand up close to her face, mimicking a cat and rubbing her hair with her hand…

Kinji's lips twitched before a frown etched across his face as he glared at Yumeko. "You can't be serious. How did you lose that much money in the first place?"

Yumeko dropped her feline demeanor, resting her right hand on her cheek in a contemplative gesture. 

"Well—" she began before clasping her hands together with an innocent smile. "—I gambled with the student council and, well, I lost."

"I understand at least that much. But I'm curious about the specifics. How exactly did it happen?"

"Let me think..."

—Yesterday.

Yumeko was invited by one of the student council members to the Traditional Culture Club. Upon getting there, it seemed like a gambling match was already going on.

The Traditional Culture Club President Yuriko Nishinotouin was having a match with someone very familiar, Mary Saotome who was taken by surprise. 

"Jabami Yumeko!? Why are you here?" Mary muttered with her eyes slightly widened, before focusing back on her game.

'Despite Kinji-san's warning…' Yumeko's voice trailed off as she observed the match between the two, and from what she could see…

…Mary was on the losing end, with the Traditional Culture Club President Yuriko Nishinotouin winning by a margin with her having easily more than four times more than Mary's chips.

"Thirty-two chips, I'm betting my whole stack," Mary declared, pushing her remaining chips onto the betting board, while the Traditional Culture Club President smiled. "Oh my, going on the offensive, huh?"

Yumeko could somewhat understand the type of game they were playing; it was kind of similar to a dice game, but with a significant difference. 

Rather than dice, this game used ten small swords along with a small circular board with small openings on them, just big enough for the swords to lodge into.

First, ten small sword pieces were put into a pot. 

Then, both participants bet their chips on another board with numbers on them, where they think the swords would fall. 

But what made this different was whether the sword landed blade-first or hilt-first—a game similar to roulette or Japanese Cho-Han gambling.

'Looks like all Saotome-san has to do is guess the right numbers… but then…' The win difference between the two of them was large. 

That could mean one thing… 'She's cheating.' But the question was, 'how?'

"Ten swords. Beginning," a member of the Traditional Culture Club, acting as the dealer of the gamble, threw the ten small swords into the pot before slamming it onto the circular board.

"Now then… Lay your bets."

"Ten, nine, eight…" Mary smiled nervously, sweat trickling as she placed her bets. 

Betting on five spots with six chips apiece, basically upping her chances to win the game without leaving enough opportunities for the Traditional Club President to cheat.

"Time's up. Bets are laid."

"Revealing the board." The dealer of the match slowly raised her pot up, revealing… "Oh my. You actually picked the right spot." However—

"The judgement is death." The number she bet on; the sword landed with the hilt first, which meant a loss for Mary.

Mary's eyes widened in shock at the results, even Yumeko herself was taken aback. "Twenty-two. Since the blade is embedded in the board, the judgement is death."

"Since Saotome bet six chips, she loses 30 times that. One hundred eighty chips, or 18 million yen. Adding to Yuriko's chips, she loses a total of minus 49.6 million."

"Good game, Saotome-san. I'll tell you later how I intend to collect the money." 

Mary lost again, and for the third time, this time with a staggering debt of close to 50 million.

"Someone, please take her outside."

"I'm done with her." Yuriko Nishinotouin cruelly smiled at Mary as she shrunk back in disbelief. This wasn't supposed to happen…

"It wasn't supposed to be like this!" Mary broke down. All she wanted was a chance to clear her debt, so "why!"

'Ah, I should have listened to him in the first place. He was right,' Mary stood up with blank eyes, silently making her way to the door in grief. 'I shouldn't have gotten ahead of myself.'

Emiya Mansion. "Atchoo!" Kinji covered his nose as he sneezed. "Who on earth is talking behind my back?"

—Back in the present.

"No wonder she looks so solemn," Kinji turned towards Mary, and behold, the girl looked worse than she did a few days ago, like she had no will to live anymore, "Ahh, what a waste."

Kinji rubbed his forehead with a sigh before sharply turning towards Yumeko, "Wait. That's not what I wanted to hear, what I wanted to know why you lost that much money to the student council."

Yumeko pouted as she turned her face away from Kinji, "Mou, Kinji-kun, you're being forceful now."

"Well then, sorry about that," Kinji said, pausing to hang his head low in thought for a moment before continuing, "Did the student council pull any stunt during the match?"

"Oh!" Yumeko delightedly clasped her hand together with a smile, "Impressive deduction Kinji-kun."

Hearing this, Kinji facepalmed. "Haah, why am I not surprised?" Kinji deadpanned as he shook his head. "Well, knowing you, it would be easy for you to repay your debt if you want."

"However—"

'—I doubt you would in the first place.' Kinji thought to himself with a smile as he walked towards his seat. 'If I'm right, then Yumeko would want to use the sole perk of being a house pet.'

'An official match against the Student Council, eh?'

'Interesting…' Kinji crossed his left hand over the smile on his face.