Chapter 78 – Are You Prepared to Be Shot, Yumeko?
Very soon, Hikigaya Hachiman was shoved into the monitoring room.
On a small table were five cards stacked together.
One of the Beautification Committee members, dressed in a red bra, said:
"These are the ESP tool cards. Line them up within the boundaries on the table so that the camera can capture them."
"No part of your body other than your hands and the cards is allowed in the camera's view."
Hikigaya slowly sat down in the chair, his expression cold and cryptic as he quietly observed his surroundings.
The monitoring room exuded a damp and shadowy atmosphere, one that came from years of avoiding sunlight.
Within Hikigaya's field of observation, aside from the camera in front of him, there were no other tools that could be used to cheat. In other words, if Ikishima Midari wanted to cheat, she'd have to do it through the camera in front of him.
For example, something simple like inverting the video feed's contents. Or, someone could be stationed in another room that Hikigaya couldn't see, relaying the information.
Which method it was—he'd have to test it out.
Hikigaya steadied his thoughts slightly and looked toward the ESP cards in front of him.
'To win this game, the first priority is to prevent cheating.'
'Then it comes down to the tacit understanding between the two players.'
As he thought this, Hikigaya slowly flipped the ESP cards open.
Instead of traditional playing card numbers, the cards had distinct symbols on them:
[Pentagram, Circle, Cross, Wavy Lines, Square]
Hikigaya rubbed his chin, his eyes glinting.
'So it's these symbols, huh?'
'If my deduction is correct…'
'It doesn't matter how the cards are arranged, and the mutual understanding between players doesn't matter either. This game…'
"Hey, Hikigaya, hurry it up. No matter how much you think, it won't help you," came an impatient voice from behind him.
The Beautification Committee girls, striking seductive poses, moved closer to Hikigaya, purposely exposing the creamy white flesh of their chests to distract him.
A strong, expensive-smelling perfume filled his nose.
It made Hikigaya's focus waver slightly. If it were this kind of trick, it really could interfere with his thinking.
If this game required a large amount of mental calculation to win, Hikigaya admitted he might have been caught off guard.
Unfortunately for them, he much preferred the fresh scent that came from Jabami Yumeko's body. And besides, he had already seen through the nature of this game before they even started trying to distract him.
With a calm and composed demeanor, Hikigaya arranged the cards neatly under the camera, following the order he had observed them in at first glance.
'Now, what I need to do is convey my deductions to Jabami through this camera.'
Hikigaya nodded slightly and slowly extended his right hand, pressing it down on the card marked with the wavy lines.
On the other side.
Jabami Yumeko, seeing Hikigaya's left hand gesture on the screen, paused for a moment—then smiled and waved at the screen.
Her radiant smile left Ikishima Midari momentarily stunned.
"Can the situation here be seen from the room where Hikigaya-kun is?" Yumeko asked.
"Of course. Although he can't hear our voices, he can see everything happening here," came the reply.
"I see, I understand now." Yumeko nodded politely.
"In that case, let's load the bullets first," Midari said as she fiddled under the table for a moment, then pulled out a revolver identical in appearance to the one she usually used and tossed it in front of Yumeko.
She then placed a tray filled with yellow-orange bullets on the table.
Yumeko touched the revolver in her hand with a puzzled look. The cold metal and the exquisite craftsmanship of the gun all confirmed its identity.
There was no doubt — this was a real gun.
Yumeko was somewhat surprised and a bit curious. Looking at the bullets on the table, she asked:
"Midari-san, although Japan doesn't outright ban guns, the way you casually carry around a revolver and that many bullets… that's not from a legal source, is it?"
"Hah?"
Midari indifferently touched her clit piercing and replied, "Are you an idiot, Yumeko? How could it be legal?"
"This isn't a big secret either. My dad is Ikishima Go — the head of the second-largest yakuza group in the Tokyo region."
"Getting a few guns and bullets? Totally easy~"
"I see."
Yumeko nodded thoughtfully, opening the cylinder of the revolver slightly, her lips parting just a bit.
After all, she was still just a teenage girl, immersed every day in caring for her sister and gambling. It wasn't surprising she wasn't familiar with firearms. But as a member of the The Hundred Devouring clan, it was a bit disgraceful that this was her first time seeing a real gun.
"Yumeko," Midari said, "though there's no need to tell your opponent how many bullets you load… I'll tell you this first—"
She licked the tongue piercing on her lips, and the cold touch seemed to send her into a frenzy. She couldn't help but extend her tongue slowly and wrap it around a bullet.
Her eyes stared intensely at Yumeko as she made obscene licking motions.
Finally, she pinched the bullet between her index finger and thumb and rubbed it downward against her tongue piercing, drawing a silvery thread of saliva.
"I'm loading six bullets!"
"In other words, this game has gone from being a matter of probability… to life or death, Yumeko!"
"At last! The card arrangement that risks your life!"
Midari screamed wildly in ecstasy.
Yumeko's expression remained unchanged. She moved the revolver under the table, keeping her actions hidden from view.
Hikigaya also calmly watched the two of them through the camera.
Finally, when Yumeko tossed the revolver beneath the table where it couldn't be seen, Midari quickly called the girls standing beside Hikigaya.
"Hey, now have Hikigaya flip the cards."
"Understood."
One of the Beautification Committee members smirked and instinctively turned toward Hikigaya Hachiman.
She was already impatient to see the terrified look on his face.
Just like the way their ex-boyfriends used to look.
But soon, Hikigaya's expression disappointed her. There wasn't a hint of emotion on his face.
It was as if Yumeko's safety had nothing to do with him.
She asked instinctively, "Hey, you—aren't you even a little worried about Jabami?"
"What's there to worry about? I'm not the one whose life's on the line," Hikigaya replied indifferently. "Besides, this has nothing to do with you guys."
"You bastard—! You damned scumbag!" The Beautification Committee member's face turned red, and she looked like she wanted to hit Hikigaya right then and there.
But thinking of what would happen if she disrupted Midari, she suppressed her anger.
With a composed expression, Hikigaya flipped over his card arrangement:
[Pentagram, Circle, Cross, Wavy Lines, Square]
In the other room, Midari laughed wildly as she flipped over the two players' cards one by one.
Midari's cards: [Pentagram, Circle, Cross, Square, Wavy Lines]
Yumeko's cards: [Cross, Pentagram, Circle, Wavy Lines, Square]
"Hahaha! Yumeko~ I got one more right than you!" Midari drooled uncontrollably, then reached under the table and rummaged around.
Finally, with trembling hands, she pulled out the gun.
"What's the matter? Do you two really have some 'tacit understanding'? Whatever, you'd better be prepared now, Yumeko~!"