“This is a scam!”
No sooner had I screamed those words than I felt something being stuffed into my mouth, forcibly silencing me─I panicked for a second about what that something might be, but it turned out to be Fukuroi’s right hand.
Really?
Michiru the Epicure was kind enough to let me eat his own hand?
I’d be lying if I said it was delicious─but in the sense that I wanted to spit it out in surprise, it was indeed similar to his other culinary creations.
“Ermph! Ergh, ermph!”
“Calm down, you idiot,” the delinquent hissed. “Think about where you are.”
“B-But, Delinquent!”
“Delinquent?”
He glared at me.
Crap. I’d blurted out my secret nickname for him─apparently my tongue had slipped because he’d twisted it around by stuffing his hand into my mouth.
“So that’s what you think of me, is it, kid?”
“Th-This is no time for a question like that!” I snapped back. At the bossman.
I may have good vision, but that doesn’t mean I look before I leap.
“I-It really is a scam! You might not be able to see it, Deli─Fukuroi, but I can. I swear…”
“I get it, I get it. I’m not questioning that. No one’s saying you’re lying. But,” he lowered his voice as he glanced around, “there’s no point in screaming it at the top of your lungs in the middle of this nest of vipers.”
He was right.
It wasn’t just pointless, it was downright dangerous.
I was the only one with special eyesight, and it would have been tough to prove my claim─because only I can see the things that only I can see.
No matter how much I insisted a mysterious kuroko was on stage communicating secretly with Fudatsuki, if no one in the audience could see this kuroko, they’d write me off as tragically delusional, and the management would toss me out for making false accusations.
I know, because I spent ten years chasing a star only I could see─I know very well that my claims can’t be trusted.
Only five people have ever believed me.
These five pretty boys.
…So while I had to grudgingly admit that Fukuroi was right, something about the way he said it bothered me.
A nest of vipers.
…Did he see all these people as enemies?
I mean, given the amount of money he’d just squandered, it made sense, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the whole story.
“Hey, look! The guy with the lolicon is going all in!”
A guy with a lolicon going all in?
Now that sounds like serious trouble, I thought, turning back toward the stage. I guess Fukuroi was the only one who’d heard me shout, because Mr. Bare-Legs, the leader, and the child genius were all watching the show just like before.
Sakiguchi must’ve been dealt a good hand, because he’d just bet all his chips.
“Aha. Staking it all, how beautiful,” murmured the possessor of the refined aesthetic.
Refined but dangerous.
It was dangerous to begin with, but now… I shifted my glasses down and looked at the stage again.
“Hm? What is it, young Dojima? I notice you’ve been fidgeting with your glasses for the past few minutes. Are you playing some sort of joke?”
The president of this detective club isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
I don’t have that kind of time to waste.
Anyway─this is what I saw:
I saw Sakiguchi’s winning hand (the numbers were in sequence, which I’m guessing is good), and the kuroko looking over his shoulder.
I saw the kuroko give the sign, and Fudatsuki receive it─and I felt like I could even see him secretly gloating inside.
He remained silent for a moment after Sakiguchi bet all his chips, then pushed his chips into the center of the table as well.
The audience’s roar reached fever pitch, but the outcome was already obvious.
Pre-established harmony.
I don’t know much about poker hands, but when the two of them showed their cards, it was obvious which was better.
To cut to the chase, tonight’s special program once again ended in victory for the maestro─extending his winning streak yet again.
The Reasonable Doubt Casino not only recouped a mountain of chips from the guest who’d won big, but it also raked in all the money the audience had bet on this “challenger,” which made for a huge profit─and if I must tell the sad story in its entirety.
The leader, Mr. Bare-Legs, and the child genius each succeeded in turning the thousand yen they’d bet on Fudatsuki into a thousand and one.