The few minutes of preparation quickly passed, and Mikura called a halt to the two.
"Are you both ready? Turn around."
"I've been ready for a long time!" Kamishita Nagi turned around with a confident smile on his face.
"I'm ready too." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at Kamishita Nagi with a somewhat strange look and nodded.
The two returned to the table they had been sitting at before.
"Now, you will divide your hands into five stacks according to your classification and place three cards per group on the table. You are to remember how you divided your cards. Once the game begins, do not tamper with these cards."
The two followed Mikura's instructions and arranged their cards.
"I'll go call Sachiko Juraku and the others back. You two supervise each other and make sure the other doesn't cheat."
After Mikura finished speaking, she unhesitatingly left their side to find her Sachiko Juraku.
Clearly, in her eyes, "Sachiko Juraku" was far more important than serving as the Dealer for a gamble.
Now that the two had independently thought and grouped their cards without interference, it was time to call Sachiko Juraku and the others back.
While Sado Mikura was briefly absent, Kamishita Nagi laughed, leaned forward towards Ayanokoji, and suddenly began to "persuade him to surrender."
"Ayanokoji, I'll tell you honestly, I'm very confident in winning this gamble. If you choose to surrender now, I'm willing to only take half of your wager, just 20 million yen."
"...You're not joking, are you?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka looked at him speechlessly and sighed softly. "We haven't even started playing yet, and you want me to surrender. Aren't you too naive?"
Kamishita Nagi shook his head and said seriously, "I'm serious. I've played this game many times, and I'm more than familiar with how to build the 'best match.'"
Ayanokoji crossed his arms and looked at him playfully. "If that's the case, why do you want me to surrender? Since you think you can win, getting 40 million yen must be much better than getting 20 million yen, right?"
"Are you going to be so kind as to let me only pay half the money?"
"After all, Mibuomi-sama said he doesn't want to make an enemy of you. If possible, I certainly hope to reach an agreement peacefully. After all, we're both kamen rider fans, so it would be great if we weren't adversaries. I don't want to fight you either."
Kamishita Nagi said sincerely.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was not swayed by his words. "Come on, you're just worried that if you lose the gamble, you'll be burdened with a huge debt. You're not confident you can beat me, otherwise you wouldn't say so much."
After Ayanokoji Kiyotaka finished speaking, he glanced at his hand.
After a pause, he said, "Alright, take your hand out from under the table. Don't try any tricks. I advise you not to even think about cheating. Captain Dragonfly's eyes are faster than your hands."
While he was sincerely "persuading" Ayanokoji, his hands were quietly placed under the table, crossed in his sleeves, doing who knows what kind of small movements.
Kamishita Nagi was exposed by Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and smiled slightly, not feeling embarrassed at all, and generously placed his hands on the table.
All of Kamishita Nagi's cheating tools were placed on a table several meters away from them. He couldn't possibly use those tools.
However, he still had "thread spools" and "invisible threads" on him, raw materials that could be used to create cheating tools on the spot, so it was easy for him to have ulterior motives.
But in fact... Kamishita Nagi had never actually thought of cheating.
He had already seen the "power" of Captain Dragonfly, and he didn't believe that his stealthy movements could escape Captain Dragonfly's sight.
It seemed his "persuasion" was meant to cover up his small movements, but in reality, his true purpose was the opposite—his hand movements were only to conceal his words, making Ayanokoji Kiyotaka overlook the main point of his speech.
Kamishita Nagi's words were a test.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's expression didn't change when he mentioned "best match," remaining very calm. It seemed that for him, forming the best match was not a problem.
He didn't show any signs of struggle, not even a moment of hesitation. It seemed that, like him, he was determined to win this time.
Although the time was short, only a few minutes, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka should have still figured out the "best match."
So, he already knew his hand.
Blackjack, three groups of 21 points, and... one group of 11 points.
The previous words, which seemed like Kamishita Nagi was persuading him to surrender, were actually used to figure out Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's grouping in just a few sentences.
Of course, if he could persuade Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to surrender, that would naturally be the best outcome.
As a Zenshoukai councilor, highly valued and entrusted with important tasks by Mibuomi Aoi, Kamishita Nagi naturally didn't just know how to cheat.
There were so many cheaters in this school, why was he able to "stand out" and get money from others?
A skilled cheater, in addition to preparing cheating tools, also needed technique, timing, and "sweet talk" to attract attention, all of which were indispensable.
He considered himself unbeatable, but even so, he still felt a chill in his heart.
Once he lost the gamble, he would lose 40 million yen. If he lost, even if Mibuomi Aoi was willing to bear four-fifths of the wager for him, he would still have to bear 8 million of it.
Kamishita Nagi did have a very high win rate in gambling, having obtained a lot of "ill-gotten gains" from some rich second-generation students in the school through cheating. His net worth once reached 10 million yen.
However, his expenses were also very high, and now he only had 5 million yen left. If he lost this game, he would be burdened with a debt of 3 million yen.
Although with his methods, he could pay off this money in just one or two months, winning the game without having to take risks was still the best outcome.
From the beginning, Mibuomi Aoi only wanted him to bet 20 million yen. It was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka who forced him to raise the wager.
Bringing back 20 million yen would allow him to perfectly complete his mission.
Unfortunately, reality was not as beautiful as he imagined; Ayanokoji Kiyotaka unhesitatingly rejected his surrender request.
When Mikura returned with the others, less than a minute had passed.
They did not know that Ayanokoji and Kamishita Nagi had a brief confrontation within that minute.
Although Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had "stopped" his cheating, he gained no substantial benefit, while he learned of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's "Tetra".
In Kamishita Nagi's view, he had won this brief competition.
Of course… only in his view.
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