With that, the second show of the night began─a showdown between the challenger and the overseer, who was betting the right to run his casino.
A dressed-up Sotoin faced Fudatsuki on stage─while the same bunny girl as before grabbed the mic and began explaining just how extraordinary it was for two such shows to take place in one night.
The audience swelled with excitement at her skilled performance─though she’d been cold to me, her fellow bunny girl.
She’d made such a fuss over me when I was dressed as a boy, and now… Well, that was just fine by me.
It would’ve been big trouble if anyone had seen through my disguise.
In that sense, we’d already scored a huge success by getting to the showdown before I’d had occasion to interact with Fudatsuki.
Thanks to the costume artist, my appearance had been utterly transformed, but (unlike Nagahiro the Orator) I couldn’t alter my voice, so the second I exchanged words with him, he would have known who I was.
Now all I had to do was watch from the floor to see what Fudatsuki’s invisible assistant did during the game, and signal to Sotoin what to do about it─which didn’t sound all that easy, but just being aware of the kuroko, who they all thought no one could see, gave us a big advantage. Now if we could only figure out how to capitalize on the fact that they hadn’t yet noticed that we’d noticed…
“Should be an easy win from here on out,” the delinquent whispered as we passed each other. “And by the way, I put all the money I took out of the ATM on the leader.”
“…”
Don’t make this any more complicated than it already is!
Now I had to use my eyesight to make sure the delinquent didn’t fall further into financial ruin, too─the pressure was growing.
For the main event, the challenger─Sotoin─chose blackjack.
Was that the only game he knew how to play?
“No, my guess is that the leader has thought up a plan of his own─after all, looking over someone’s shoulder in blackjack is pointless, which means the invisible kuroko’s help won’t be as useful as it was in poker,” Sakiguchi noted.
Setting aside the question of whether the leader actually thought about anything, Sakiguchi’s point made sense─although he’d apparently failed in his scheme to get the child genius up on stage as the dealer.
This time, there was no dealer.
“…”
Mr. Bare-Legs, meanwhile, looked like he was barely hanging on. We had to wrap this up fast so Mr. Bare-Legs could bare his legs again!
“And with that, let the games begin!” the bunny girl announced, before exiting the stage─my eyes were peeled, watching for the appearance of the kuroko.
Everything was going to be fine.
Considering the situation, I bore a heavy responsibility, but I’d practiced plenty of scenarios in the art room (while Sotoin was getting done up as a girl) so I’d be ready no matter what happened─whatever that kuroko did, I’d show him who was boss.
Since this was my first real mission as a member of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, I was going to knock their socks off─or so I thought.
But instead, an unexpected twist appeared in the plot.
Or rather.
Didn’t appear.