Chapter 154: Concentration
In short, after Fujiwara Chika switched to a standard deck——
The student council finally began the first round of the game Concentration.
"Three of spades, three of hearts. I'll take them." Sakurai Saki flipped over a heart and a spade—both threes.
He then placed them next to himself.
With the two jokers removed, there were only 52 cards in total, meaning 26 possible points—each matching pair earned one point.
In the case that Shirogane Miyuki wasn't playing, and if the cards were evenly distributed, each person would get about 6 points?
No! This was a game based on luck and memory.
Just like Sakurai Saki, who flipped a matching pair of threes in the first round and gained an early advantage—yet even if a player had excellent memory, if it wasn't their turn, the cards they remembered could still be snatched away by someone quicker.
Moreover, this time there was no combo point rule—each turn only allowed two cards to be flipped.
In short, there were a lot of techniques involved here.
"Saki-kun~ you better not cheat, okay!" Chika reminded him.
"Cheat? Sakurai-senpai isn't Fujiwara-senpai. How could he possibly cheat?" Ishigami Yuu, firmly on Sakurai Saki's side, stated with certainty.
"That's right, Chika. How could I possibly cheat?" Sakurai said with a straight face.
He'd cheated plenty of times before.
Not much better than Fraud-Chika herself.
Chika looked at his expression and realized… he didn't seem to be lying.
In other words, he really was just lucky, which is how he got a point right in the first round.
Right—getting a point on the first turn, what could that be but luck?
"I hope you're not lying." Chika didn't seem to trust Sakurai much.
After all, she'd lost to him hundreds of times last year. No matter how she looked at it, it couldn't be her fault, right?
Who trips over the same stone hundreds of times?
Shinomiya Kaguya flipped her cards: a 7 and an 8.
Ishigami Yuu flipped: an 8 and a 9.
Fujiwara Chika flipped the two 8s from the previous players and scored one point.
Her luck wasn't bad—she picked up a point.
Sakurai Saki flipped again: one 4, and the other was also a 4.
"…Sakurai-senpai, you're seriously lucky." Ishigami Yuu spoke in admiration.
Other than luck, he truly couldn't think of any explanation.
"Fools have the blessings of fools. It's nothing special," Shinomiya Kaguya said.
"Hmph. There's an exam next week—don't come crying to me then." Sakurai Saki issued a subtle threat.
Just wait until you're wearing a maid outfit and meowing in cat language!
"I'm really envious of people as confident as you. Losing over ten times and still thinking you'll win." Shinomiya Kaguya flipped her cards again: a King and a 4.
Ishigami Yuu flipped: a Jack and a 10.
"Are you guys betting on this?" Fujiwara Chika asked while flipping her own cards.
Chika didn't get a match—Sakurai Saki was still in the lead.
Come to think of it, she was probably included in Kaguya's earlier jab too… After all, she was the one who lost hundreds of times and still believed she could win.
Chika felt a little irritated at the thought.
"We're betting on exam scores. Whoever loses has to wear a maid outfit and serve the winner for an entire day." Sakurai Saki said, his expression not changing much, as if it wasn't a big deal.
But that wasn't the truth—he actually cared quite a lot.
However, if he showed too much interest, he'd be lowering himself in front of Kaguya.
"Umu, it's just a simple competition. Nothing unusual." Shinomiya Kaguya also put on an indifferent face.
Ishigami Yuu, upon hearing this, sighed: "Senpai, you guys really go big."
No matter who it was, this was enough to be called "social death."
Wearing a maid outfit… Ishigami Yuu glanced at Sakurai Saki.
Sakurai-senpai actually had a very pretty face and a figure that would suit women's clothing. His muscles weren't obvious at first glance, but according to rumors, they were pretty toned underneath. Where did that rumor come from? Well… that's a secret.
Ishigami Yuu had heard about it while overhearing the girls in class chatting. It was a common thing—after all, Sakurai Saki had become nothing short of a school idol at Shuchiin. You could only say: people with good looks really are popular with the girls.
"You guys have got to be kidding me, right?" Shirogane Miyuki, sitting next to Ishigami Yuu with his head down looking over some documents, guessed aloud.
"Kidding? Not at all! We're dead serious." Sakurai Saki never joked about things like this.
"People from the Shinomiya household aren't afraid of being challenged." Ojou-sama Kaguya of the Shinomiya family, backed by the shield known as Hayasaka Ai, was utterly unshaken.
When things really got bad, she could just have Hayasaka date him after school—he'd definitely back off.
Besides, even if she lost, being "submissive to the winner for an entire day" would, in reality, only mean the time after school.
"Oh right, the loser has to wear a maid outfit in class too~" Sakurai Saki flipped two more cards.
Two Kings—he took them.
Now he had 4 points.
"We clearly agreed not to violate each other's dignity. Wearing a maid outfit in class—if you ask me, that's already crossing the line." Shinomiya Kaguya objected.
"Fair point."
Sakurai Saki nodded.
"…Sakurai-senpai, are you really not cheating?"
"It's just luck." Sakurai Saki replied.
This was a brand-new deck that Fujiwara Chika had brought—never opened—so Sakurai Saki obviously couldn't have cheated.
But… was it really impossible to cheat?
Absolutely not!
My brother, please allow me to introduce you to this man's superpower.
[Today's Superpower: Luck]
Effect: Drastically increased luck
Side effects: None
As everyone knows, the flashier the ability, the more useless it tends to be. For example, Word Spirit—Sakurai Saki had dissed that ability of "whip a dead body" multiple times before because it's truly! Truly! Useless!
Following that, the way the student council members looked at Sakurai Saki became increasingly strange—as if they were staring at a god.
In a 26-point game, Sakurai Saki had already secured 11 points.
If not for the rule allowing only two flips per turn, the gap might've been even more absurd.
"Sakurai-senpai! I have something super important to ask you!!" Ishigami Yuu bowed deeply and shouted.
This might be the only chance of his life!
"Let's hear it."
"Please roll gacha for me!!" Ishigami Yuu said as he pulled out his phone.
Seeing how lucky Sakurai was, Ishigami couldn't take it anymore.
He was cursed in games—he always had to hit the ceiling, i.e., get pity after 300 rolls just to exchange for a character! He'd grind for months, yet still miss the rate-up! This garbage game—if he hadn't already dumped so much money into it, he would've quit ages ago! His 50,000 yen monthly allowance all went into it!
"Sure." Sakurai Saki accepted the phone from Ishigami.
"What game is this?"
He usually didn't play mobile games.
"Idolm@ster—specifically, Idolm@ster Shiny Colors. It's an idol-raising game."Ishigami Yuu opened the summon screen.
"What character do you want?"
"Higuchi Madoka."
One minute later——
"OH SHIT!! MADOKA-CHAN!!" Ishigami Yuu shouted with excitement.
✧*◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜✧*｡
After getting Sakurai to roll a few more games, Ishigami blissfully dove straight into grinding…
"Sakurai, roll a lottery ticket for me." Shirogane Miyuki pleaded.
"Are you serious?"
"Haha, just joking." Shirogane Miyuki scratched his head.
Though he had once thought about winning the lottery, it still felt way too far-fetched.
Sakurai Saki then turned to look at Shinomiya Kaguya.
Kaguya: "Destroy the Earth—can you do that?"
"Kaguya-san, do you… actually want the Earth destroyed?" Sakurai asked in surprise.
"Is that so hard to understand?"
Shinomiya Kaguya sipped her tea.
"What I mean is, aside from ridiculous things like that, everything I want is basically within reach, so there's no reason for me to ask you for help."
"If someday you really run into something you can't handle, kneel in front of me and beg, and maybe I'll help you." Sakurai Saki said seriously.
"That's not going to happen." Shinomiya Kaguya sneered coldly.
Unless the Shinomiya family collapsed tomorrow.
Otherwise, there was absolutely no chance of that.
...
Note: Damn, I want this guy to roll gacha for me too!