"Jackpot!" Otoru slammed his cards on the desk. The dealer, who was known as Kim, sighed. He wore a tuxedo and had long wavy silver hair with black streaks that reached to his neck. He was possibly around Otoru's age, maybe in his early 20s. "Sir, you can't yell Jackpot in Blackjack. And more importantly, you can't yell it at every turn. And I'm baffled that I even have to say this, but you definitely can't yell it when you're losing."
"Right. Sorry." He took on a more serious expression, intending to have a 'poker face' at the wrong game. "Do you even know how to play Blackjack?" Kim gathered the cards and shuffled them in a rapid manner.
"I do, but I wouldn't mind hearing it from you again." Otoru leaned backwards, trying to signal his confidence.
"Your goal is to get a hand total as close to 21 as possible without going over. When you go over 21, it's a bust. At the start, we both get 2 cards. Both of yours are visible. That's called face-up. However, only one of mine is face-up. A Jack, a Queen, and a King are all worth 10. An ace is either 1 or 11, depending on which one is best for the hand. The rest are worth whatever number is written on them." He dealt the cards to Otoru and himself.
Otoru had a Queen and a 5 of spades. "So this is 15, huh?"
"That's correct." Kim, however, had a 4 of diamonds and one hidden card. "Now, you either hit or stand. When you hit, you draw a random card. If you exceed 21-"
"I bust, yeah, I understand." He nodded along.
"Right." He hid the annoyance in his voice from getting cut off. "If you stand, you skip your turn. Unlike you, I can't choose if I hit or stand. I follow established rules as the dealer. If I'm 16 or below, I hit. If I'm 17 or above, I stand. The game will continue until one of us wins or we both end in a draw. That's the case if we both bust. Because this is a practice game, we can play a single round without bets." Kim smiled. "Let the game begin."
"Damn, 15… I might be fucked here. If I get those weird royalty cards or 7 and above, I'm really fucked. Like fucked fucked." Otoru muttered under his breath, but it was clearly audible to the man sitting across from him at the table. "Language, please." Kim kept his smile.
Otoru analyzed his surroundings. Even if it was far away, it wasn't really hard to notice the guards watching him carefully. When he pulled up to the casino with such a casual outfit, people were suspicious of him. And more importantly, he was worried that somebody would recognise him.
The lights of the casino were almost blinding. The smell of cigarettes was almost unbearable, even if he was a smoker himself. Everything was too bright, too colorful. People were laughing, weeping and begging the guards to have their money back… he didn't understand why Pablo told him to come here.
"Luckily I had that chick with me, acting as my girlfriend. They would never allow me to enter otherwise… I don't know where she is, but she'll be fine." He pondered. "Alright, I… hit."
"Very well." Kim drew a card, a four of hearts, and placed it alongside Otoru's cards. "19, lucky you." Kim cheered him on. "Now it's my turn." Kim revealed his hidden card, a king, 14 in total. Then he drew for himself, a five of clubs. "19. We're tied up right now, isn't it exciting?"
"Damn right! I'm getting the hang of this!" Otoru cackled. "This is no-stakes anyway, right? Alright, I hit again. Whatever." He couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
"Normally it's a risky decision, but you're right, nothing is on the line." Kim drew again. "And you know what they say, you can't drink whisky if you can't get risky."
"They… say that?" Otoru stared in confusion, but waited for the card in excitement anyway. When Kim flipped it, it was revealed to be a 2 of clubs. "Oh my." Kim laughed elegantly.
"Yes! 21! Lick my ass! Stand!" He slapped the table, unable to contain his excitement. But when he noticed the glare of the guards, he piped down and scratched the back of his neck. "My bad."
"You're right to be excited. Now let's see…" Kim drew one for himself again, a six of spades. "Oh, I bust. Looks like you win."
"It was fun, even if I didn't get anything." The thrill of winning excited him.
Kim collected the cards and began shuffling again. "Want to play for real now?" The cards were moving so fast it was impossible to see them.
"You got it." Otoru grinned. "I wonder how Pablo is doing?"
Not well.
He woke up on his knees, his hands raised above his head and chained to the roof. "Damn it, I was ambushed from behind. Where the hell am I?" He couldn't see a thing, surrounded by complete darkness.
He budged his hands around to make sense of the chain and maybe find a way to get out of it. "I can feel my prosthetic. That's good. I think they didn't take off my gloves, otherwise they would see the Manasteel and take the hand." All attempts at breaking the chains failed, even if he used mana to increase his strength.
Next, he channeled mana into his eyes to see his surroundings better. Even if it was still very dark, Pablo could at least see that he was in a jail cell. He looked up, noticing the chain was made of Manasteel. "It's absorbing my mana. That's why I can't break free. Maybe I can overload it, but that would make noise." He got up on his feet to think more clearly. "I can always cut off my other hand and detach the prosthetic to slip free. As long as it isn't soul damage, I can heal it."
To gather his courage, he took a deep breath.
"That would hurt. I'm not doing that."
"There's definitely guards around here. I don't know how strong they are. I could just bossraid my way through as well if I end up getting caught. But for now, let's do stealth."
Out in the darkness, slow, dramatic, overly pretentious, and cliche claps are heard. The sound is getting closer and closer. "You awake?" The voice said. It most definitely belonged to a male, as it was quite deep.
"No, I'm not." Pablo rolled his eyes.
"Cracking jokes, are we? You're not in a position where you can joke, I'll be honest."
"You know I'm here by my own choice, right? I could just break out of this, but that would be too loud. So I think I need to stay here for a while." Pablo grinned, but anger was clear in his voice.
"Isn't that the opposite of being here by choice?" The man cackled.
"Well, I could leave. I'm just choosing not to."
"Because it would lead to a situation you wouldn't want to be in-" The man was interrupted.
"Which is still by my own choice-" He interrupted Pablo back.
"Which is not a choice independent of variables but one influenced by events outside of your own choice, which is why you're here."
"...Fuck you." Pablo looked away.
"What's your name?" The man lit a cigarette, lighting up his face just for a millisecond. Pablo couldn't really point out anything, though.
"Why am I here?" He didn't really have time for this. "Are you from the Caedis family?"
"No. And trust me, you should be happy I'm not from the Caedis. Because if they captured you, oh boy… you would wish to be dead, Pablo Drake." The man chuckled.
"...So you do know my name."
"It was a rhetorical question. I would follow up with a 'No, your name is bla bla from this point on.'" He took a drag from his cigarette.
"Why is every kidnapper so fucking bad at this part?" He thought to himself. "My question still stands. Why am I here?"
"That's a good question." The captor was surely taking his sweet ass time, enjoying the power he currently held.
"You don't say."
"From the moment you entered, my man had an eye on you. How, you may ask…"
"I'd rather learn why." He tried to slip his hands through the chain again, but it was useless.
"You had the right hand of Infamy with you. And if what I read in the newspapers and the rumors are true… you were friends with the other right hand of his, right?"
"You mean Tsuyoi?" His arms started to hurt from being in the air for this long.
"Yeah. Now you had him captured, now you have 'Otoru The Undefeated' with you. Why? You want to get him captured too?" He let out an amused huff.
The claim caught him off-guard, leaving him utterly baffled at first.
"Take that back!" Pablo yelled.
"Don't worry about him. He's having a very good time right now."
Which wasn't true.
Back in the casino, Otoru played everything he had, just like Pablo asked. And yet he was losing miserably. For some reason, the luck he had at first was now gone, nowhere to be seen.
"Unlucky, huh?" Kim's smile was the same, yet the weight it carried was different, to say the least.
Otoru had 17, while Kim had 17 as well.
"Your turn." Kim tilted his head.
Otoru stared at his deck in total fear and anxiety. His eyes darted around the table. "Come on, your turn." Kim repeated. "It happens to all of us, mister. But now you have to play… and everything you have-"
And after a few seconds, Otoru's smile returned. He smirked.
"Okay… I hit."
Kim gasped.
"What? Wasn't expecting that? Your cards showed you something else, didn't they?" Otoru's smirk turned into a grin. "Logically, at 17, the only logical option would be to stand. But that's what you want because of something everyone in this casino most definitely missed. But I didn't. You're at soft 17 because you have an ace, so the casino's rules decide if you hit or stand."
"W-W-What are you talking about?" Kim tried to keep his smile. "How do you know that? You don't-"
"Wait, you think I don't know this game? Was my act that good? Dumbass, this is the only stupid ass game we have on that ship."
Kim gasped even more audibly, but tried to keep his composure.
"The next card is most definitely a 4, whatever suit it is." Otoru placed his legs on the table. "How do you know that?!" Kim stood up and yelled.
"I don't know, you tell me, The Fate's Dealer, Kim Yungun." Otoru stared right into Kim's eyes, who went pale at the mention of his nickname. "You thought I wouldn't recognise a Treasurer like you? I don't really read the paper, but even I know who you are. We both belong in the Trash 10, as the media calls us." He looked at the ceiling. "10 underdogs with D-Grade or below Treasure Grades… rising to the top."
Kim sat down again and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"Alright, hit then." He smiled once more.
"And now you changed the cards again." Otoru placed his legs down and leaned in. "I can see through your tricks, Kim. You used your Treasure to make the card a 4, hoping I would stand and you could hit to have a 21. And now you changed it again." He placed his hands on the table.
"...I don't know what you're talking about, Otoru." Kim placed his hands on the table as well. "I don't know your Treasure, but you apparently know mine. I'm guessing you used yours to figure this trick of mine, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Otoru shrugged. "What now? It isn't fair to keep playing if you keep changing the cards with your Treasure." He smirked once more.
"We both know what's next." Kim stood up and rolled up his sleeve, also collecting the deck of cards.
"You got that right." Otoru stood up as well, noticing the security circling around him.
"Looks like I was the only person that followed the dress code." The shirt wrapped around his physique. He raised his fists.