Saotome Meari clicked her tongue in annoyance: "Then you should consider us who don't cheat. Isn't it unfair to be grouped with you gamblers?"
"You've come to this money-driven school; do you still think others will gamble fairly with you? What a joke!"
Kamishita Nagi crossed his arms and laughed, deliberately provoking, "If you can't even detect cheating, you deserve to lose."
"You cheater, you're quite self-righteous!"
"Alright, don't mind him."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka held Meari back and glanced at Kamishita Nagi.
"He has a point. After all, this is gambling, and both sides will use all their means. Not getting caught cheating is also a skill."
Although his cheating tools were discovered, Kamishita Nagi was quite frank.
"Exactly, just like now. Ayanokoji used that 'Humagear' to detect these gambling tools on me, and I admit it's my failure.
In this gamble, I won't use these cheating devices. I will gamble with you openly and with my intelligence."
"You say that so frankly. Isn't it just because all your cheating tools have been discovered and you can't cheat at all?" Kurume quipped.
"..." Kamishita Nagi turned his head away, pretending to be aloof, and didn't reply.
He wasn't embarrassed for long. Soon, someone knocked on the door, and after giving everyone time to react, the person pushed open the door.
"Excuse me."
It was a short-haired, cold-faced girl. She wore a school uniform skirt and a conspicuous leather choker around her neck.
"Hello everyone, I am the Dealer for this gamble, Sado Mikura." She nodded to the stunned crowd, her voice cool and giving off an unapproachable, distant vibe.
"Mikura, why are you here?" Meari exclaimed in surprise, "Have you joined the Election Committee?"
"Not just me, but Senior Juraku, she's here too."
Sado Mikura said, looking towards the door. A mature woman with long white hair reaching her waist walked into the room with a playful smile, her gaze fixed on Ayanokoji.
"Ayanokoji, are you happy to see me?"
"Of course!" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stood up and said with a smile, "Senior Juraku, why are you here too?"
Ayanokoji said, then looked down at Kamishita Nagi, somewhat surprised: "You can even invite Sachiko Juraku to be a Dealer?"
Is this guy's network that extensive?
Kamishita Nagi was also confused and quickly clarified: "Don't talk nonsense, it wasn't me! I invited the Dealer named Yamato Inaho, the one with the dog hat!"
Mikura looked at Sachiko Juraku with an inquisitive gaze, and only spoke after the latter nodded.
"That Dealer is busy today. The call went to Huangquan Luna, and coincidentally, Senior Juraku and I were also there. Senior Juraku is very interested in your gamble, Ayanokoji, so we took Huangquan Luna's place."
This Senior Sachiko Juraku acts on impulse. Hearing that there was a gamble here, she came over just for the entertainment...
Hearing Mikura's explanation, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wasn't surprised at all.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was curious how much she knew about his "conflict" with Zenshoukai, and deliberately probed, "Senior Juraku, do you know why I'm gambling with Kamishita Nagi and the others?"
"I'm not interested in the reason for your gamble. I just want to see your performance during the gamble."
She sat on the sofa in the corner, crossed her legs, and a smile played on her lips: "You don't need to mind me; I'm just a spectator. Mikura will be the Dealer this time."
"Please take care of us." Mikura nodded, her expression calm.
The Dealer for the gamble had arrived. Although it wasn't the person Kamishita Nagi had initially expected, it didn't make much difference.
He began to explain the rules of the gamble.
"The game we're going to play is called [best match]."
His first sentence made Ayanokoji Kiyotaka raise an eyebrow.
"best match? Do you want us to compete to see who can find the best match pair from the Fullbottles?"
"best match" is a mechanism in kamen rider Build. Although items can be combined randomly, using a "best match" can unleash greater power.
For example, "RabbitTank," "GorillaMond," "HawkGatling"...
This guy seemed to be a hardcore kamen rider fan, but Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wasn't afraid of playing this way.
It wasn't Ayanokoji Kiyotaka boasting, but even without the "guaranteed win" mechanism, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could discern which pair was the best match.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka believed that the person opposite him, who resembled "Kiryu Sento," should also be able to do this.
What was the point of competing on this?
"Of course not that! Although that would be quite interesting..."
Kamishita Nagi smiled and explained, "The rules of the game are simple. Each of us will use a deck of 13 playing cards, from Ace to King. We must use all 13 cards to form five Tetras, either two or three cards per Tetra."
"The strength of the Tetra is equivalent to regular Blackjack. The closer the sum is to 21, the greater it is. Ace can be 1 or 11, Jack to King are all 10. An Ace paired with a 10 to King is the strongest Blackjack... which is the 'best match.'"
He introduced it.
"When we are ready, it's time for the showdown.
We will each arrange the order of our five Tetras to compare their values, using this order for the showdown.
During this stage, we must place bets. Both sides have five chips each. At least one chip must be bet per round. One chip can be sacrificed to fold, or you can raise the bet, forcing the opponent to fold. If one side folds, neither side needs to reveal their cards, and the round ends directly."
"When the five rounds of comparison are over, the side with more chips is the winner."
He gave Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Mikura time to digest and understand, then smiled and said, "The rules aren't difficult, are they? Are you ready?"
Although Kamishita Nagi used the term "best match," the essence of this game was still a competition similar to [Blackjack].
[Blackjack], which is 21 points, was the first game Ayanokoji Kiyotaka played when he came to this academy. He didn't expect Kamishita Nagi to want to compete with him in this...
"These are the cards for the gamble."
Hanatemari Kazura handed an unopened deck of playing cards to Mikura. After checking and confirming that the deck had no issues, she gave all the diamond cards to Kamishita Nagi and all the spade cards to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
Ayanokoji glanced at her, feeling a bit amused and exasperated.
Among the four suits of playing cards, spades are the highest and diamonds are the lowest. Mikura appeared to be a neutral Dealer, but she clearly had a bias towards him.
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