IN THE DEVILS GRASP (Sachiko x OC)

(5) AOI

IT WAS THE NEXT DAY and I was making my way towards our gambling den. Mary by my side.

We had both been running late but had full faith in Tsuzura and Yukimi.... I mean, I had faith in Tsuzura. I still don't know a lot about this Yukimi character.

Tsuzura had caught a ride with Mary again today and Rei rode with me. The car ride here was filled with soft chatter but when we got here, she disappeared.

Rei was being distant. Albeit she's only been acting like this for about two days, and still. We were typically attached at the hip. I could see why Tsuzura is kind of disconnected now, but Rei? I guess the stuff going on at home is really severe. More severe than she's making it seem.

"How do you think they're holding up?"

"I think that they're probably fine."

When we finally reach the room Mary walks in first,

"Sorry. That took longer than expected. So, what's going on in here?"

"Oh. Hey Mary."

"What's the matter?" I ask.

"Are we losing already?"

"No. We're up. By three million. " Mary gasps and I groan "see him? that's Aoi Mibuomi from the student council. He just kind of showed up."

"That's strange. Student council members don't just show up. Especially to a den that's only been open two days? No there's something off about this. We have to shut this game down." I move forward towards the table "hello boys. Due to unfortunate circumstances, we have to close up a little early today. So, if you could please leave that would be great."

"Oh come on! Just one more game. You guys have a three game limit, no? And I've only played two rounds so far. I'd like to play my third."

"Then come back again tomorrow. We're done here."

"I'd suggest you let me play another round. If you didn't know, or you've seemed to forget. I'm Aoi Mibuomi. I'm part of the student council and incase you haven't realized, we control everything that goes on inside and even outside of these walls. So. I am going to be playing a third game and this time, I'm betting four million. It would truly be a shame if I told the president that you kicked me out."

I was about to tell him to go screw himself but before I could Tsuzura said, "Estuko. Please. Just calm down and let us play this. Then we can shut down for today."

"Oh. So that's Estuko Sone. You know, I came all the way down here to see you specifically. So my apologizes that I was rude. You see, I'm very passionate about gambling and I'm having quite a bit of fun." He stood up and made his way over to me "I heard you took out Sachiko in a game yesterday. That's pretty impressive. I must know. Was it you who decided on this game?"

"No. It was me," Mary spoke up.

"Well. It looks like you put a lot of thought into this game. It's clever that you have the customer be the first one to pick out the die. They take the lead, makes them feel like the playing field is actually even. But, you and I both know that isn't true. It's really a simple three-way deadlock. Red beats white, white beats black, and black beats red. When they're pairs its a lot easier to win. But with that said, whoever choses later will win. " he rolls the dice in his fingers "the probability says that theres a five-in-nine chance. The more times they get you to play the more the gambling den takes. It's a pretty sweet deal, taking advantage of your customers like that." He finally sits back down "the day is wasting. I could talk about this for hours, but why don't we gamble and test my theory. I'm gonna choose the white die again. You'll pick red, right?"

"Uh y-yeah."

We really were screwed now.

Tsuzura and Aoi both roll the dice. he rolls a five, Tsuzura rolls a two.

"Hell yeah! Aoi wins!"

"Four million yen! That's amazing!"

"yeah!"

The guys with him start to congratulate him. Acting like four million yen was a lot and amazing to him. But it wasn't. That boy probably had more money than he needed or could think to do with.

Tsuzura falls to the floor, looking defeated and Yukimi runs over to her. Mary stands there just frozen. Sweating with her eyes wide and head tilted down.

"Alright boys. You can go ahead now. I'm going to collect my winnings now." Aoi says while the other guys pat him on the back on their way out. I get the money together that we owe him.

"here's what we owe you. One million yen." He doesn't reach his hands out or anything. His hands remain in his pocket and he smiles.

"You can keep it. Let's call it a present. I figure you'll be in trouble if you lose this, especially if you wanna reverse her mitten status."

"You're right. But we still don't---" before I could finish what I'm saying he places his hand on my shoulder.

"but if I do that, you think you could help me with something?" he leans in closer to me "Estuko, I really need you right now. It's not something that's difficult. I just need need your help with one thing. Destroying the student council president!"

That's not difficult! What the hell is this guy on?

"Destroy the student council president? What do you mean by that? Why would you wanna hurt her if you're on the council with her? That doesn't make any sense." He walks around me and towards Tsuzura.

"because of this," he says while picking up her house pet tag "Don't you think this is a little much? They treat you like an animal for just losing a game. It's wrong .The student council president created this system. I want to dismantle it. If you're willing to help me out, then I'll give you this million back. I know we can do it, Estuko. I just need your help."

This is kind of just like a side note. One of the things I don't really understand is why they just think that they can take her down and the system will fall too. I mean, Kirari created an entire system where human beings get treated as animals just because they lost a game. People support and participate in the system. The lesser people (the house pets and people in