Gamble Fish 13

Chapter 13

127

Title: Fight 13 A New Challenge

128

Mizuhara: Okay!! These are the notes from the past half month.
Text in center of notebook: Math
Small circled text on bottom right of notebook: Tomu

Mizuhara: This is the test we took the other day.
Tomu: Thanks, Mizuhara.
Natsumi: Here!! Say "ah", Tomu-senpai.

129

Tomu: I want to get back to school.
Tomu: The doctor says I'm not ready yet...
Tomu: but I can't gather the ten billion yen while lying around here.

Mizuhara: What are you saying!? It's a miracle they managed to reattach your finger at all.
SFX: *turn*

130

Tomu: Tsukiyono...
Mizuhara: Tsukiyono Yuka!!?

Mizuhara: Why are you here!? The match is o-...ph!!?
Yuka: Shut up, mushroom head.
Yuka: I was in the area, so I decided to drop by is all!!

Tomu: So you came to see me...I'm glad.
Tomu: You should be taking things easy.

Yuka: I-I already told you. I just happened to be in the area!!
Yuka: But more importantly, how's your finger!?
Tomu: The surgery was successful...and the nerves have started to reconnect.

131

Tomu: It might be because Abidani cut it so well. Ha ha ha...
Tomu: Speaking of Abidani, he gave me this to give to you.

Yuka: It's the amount I lost...2.4 million yen.
Mizuhara: Ohh...
Natsumi: Wow...
Yuka: Even after paying your hospital bill, you should have some left over.

Tomu: Luck just happened to be on my side...
Tomu: If you hadn't agreed to the extra games, it would have ended with me losing.

Yuka: I know why I lost...I let my guard down.

132

Yuka: Using my shuffling to order the cards so I could find them was the right decision...
Yuka: but I underestimated you by choosing the simplest ordering.

Yuka: That let you guess what ordering I was using and use it against me.
Yuka: If I had chosen a more random order, I wouldn't have lost.

Tomu: A guess, huh?
Yuka: What?

Tomu: I bet my finger because I knew I had a 100% chance of victory.
Tomu: I saw through what ordering you used partway through.

Yuka: Th-that's bullshit!!!

133

Mizuhara: Stop it, you two!! This is a hospital!!
Natsumi: Don't get so mad, Tsukiyono-san!!
Natsumi: Explain what's going on so we can understand, too!!

Yuka: Fine...Revealing the trick is a taboo for magicians...
Yuka: but I'll make an exception today.

Yuka: This is a newly opened deck.
Yuka: As you can see, it starts with the ace of spades and ends with the king of hearts.

134

Yuka: First I divide it evenly into two packets.
Yuka: Then one has the hearts and clubs and the other has the diamonds and spades.
Yuka: Then I do a "Faro Shuffle".

Mizuhara: F-Faro shuffle?
Yuka: It's a shuffling technique that perfectly interweaves the cards.

Yuka: It's usually done while holding the cards in the air, but, if you're used to it, you can do it on the table.
Yuka: Now the cards are lined up like this: ace of spades, ace of clubs, 2 of spades, 2 of clubs, 3 of spades, 3 of clubs, etc...

Yuka: See?

Mizuhara: I see...It's lined up in groups of two.

Yuka: And then I split it in half again.

135

Yuka: It splits into two packets. One with spades and clubs, the other with diamonds and hearts. Both of them are lined in pairs starting with the aces...
Yuka: Then I do a second "Faro Shuffle".

Yuka: That completes the four-in-a-row ordering of a deck.
Yuka: It's only a two step process...Simple, isn't it?

Yuka: Since shuffling only twice is unusual, I mix in a couple of "Pull Through" shuffles.
Mizuhara: W-wow!!
Yuka: Simply put, a "Pull Through" is a shuffle that doesn't change the order of the cards...no matter how many times you do it, the order of the cards will stay the same.

136

Yuka: There's no way an ordinary person saw through my movements!!
Yuka: That's why I said it was a guess!!

Tomu: It's true that I didn't see through your movements.
Tomu: But I knew that you would have some way of ordering the deck.

Tomu: And 99% of the time, the "four-in-a-row" ordering is used because it is the most advantageous for the dealer.
Tomu: So I led the flow of the game to a point where I could confirm it wasn't the remaining 1%.

Yuka: Confirm it!? When...?
Tomu: Do you remember when I bet 20 chips?

137

Tomu: I had a total of 17 and you had a face card for 10.

Tomu: The aces had been used up, so the best you could get was 20.
Tomu: The deck ran out in a situation where I would win with Black Jack if I got a 4.

Tomu: After you shuffled the new deck needed for my card...
Tomu: I cut the deck irregularly, leaving only the bottom card.

Yuka: I remember.
Yuka: You stuck a rose in that card to keep me from switching it out.

Tomu: I wasn't aiming for Black Jack.

138

Tomu: As you predicted, that bottom card was the ace of spades and the other card I got, the top card, was the king of hearts.
Tomu: I went bust and lost, but that didn't matter.

Tomu: What mattered was that the bottom card was the ace of spades and the top card ws the king of hearts.
Tomu: That's when I confirmed it.

Yuka: Ah...!!!

Tomu: After the cards have been shuffled, it's highly unlikely that the cards will start with the ace of spades and end with the king of hearts.
Tomu: From those two cards, I could tell how you had set up the deck.

139

Mizuhara: So that's it!! It started with the aces of spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts and ended with the kings of spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts...
Mizuhara: It was the "four-in-a-row" order!?
Tomu: Exactly.

Tomu: Of course, I only knew the bottom card I stuck the rose in for sure. It was possible you switched out the top card.
Tomu: But you were caught up in the game before your eyes and didn't notice my true aim.

Yuka: I see...So that's what you did.
Yuka: And that's when you told me I made a mistake that would determine the winner.

Yuka: Sorry, but...could you two leave the room for a bit?
Natsumi & Mizuhara: Eh?

140

Yuka: ...I was utterly defeated.
Yuka: I didn't realize I'd been caught in your trap that early on in the game.

Yuka: But, oddly enough, I'm not upset or anything.
Yuka: I did my best and fought my hardest as a magician...
Yuka: I don't regret having lost to a gambler of your level.

Tomu: You were a formidable enemy.
Tomu: I had to be prepared to lose a finger in order to remove your magic.
Yuka: I think...
Yuka: you cast some magic on me.
Tomu: Eh?

141

Yuka: Magic that is...making my heart pound so much...
Tomu: Tsukiyono...

Natsumi: Noooo!! Don't get so close to my Tomu-senpai!!
Mizuhara: That's Tomu for you!! He got Tsukiyono's heart as well as the 2.4 million!!

142

Natsumi: Kyaah!!?
Mizuhara: Paah!!?

143

Natsumi: Mushroom-senpai!! Are you okay!?

Tomu: Are you hurt, Tsukiyono?
Yuka: N-no.

Tomu: Heh heh...
Tomu: This is no time to be lying around in the hospital.

Tomu: I have a new challenge...!!

144

Mika: Hello?
Mika: I see...Good job.

Mika: He's received the message.
SFX: *beep*
Mika: I leave the rest to you, champion.

145

Asahina: Well, I can't turn down a request from my best friend.
Asahina: But I'm surprised that you would be interested in that boy, Mika.

Mika: Don't misunderstand...As the daughter of the Shishidou family, I can't let someone as rude as him do as he pleases.
Mika: I won't go as far as asking Abidani-sensei for help, though.

Asahina: Leave it to me.

Asahina: I was planning on taking him on whether you asked me or not.

146

Asahina: I can't forgive anyone who is a part of the "Shirasagi" family.