16. Hikigaya Feels Anger for the First Time
"It looks like the goddess of luck is on my side."
Sumeragi Itsuki helplessly shrugged her shoulders and unceremoniously grabbed the chips in front of Hikigaya and Jabami, pulling them towards herself.
"Great, I won again."
She excitedly walked out of the private room, waving her hands and shouting loudly to the students gathered below, watching the game.
She didn't notice that Hikigaya had once again stood beside Yumeko, casting her an appreciative glance.
"Jabami, you noticed too, didn't you?"
"Mm, Hikigaya-kun, you're so bad for purposely losing the game," Yumeko flashed a chilling smile, her crimson snake-like eyes locked onto the man who fascinated her. "If Sumeragi-san uses a new deck of cards in the next round, the two of us will fall into an abyss of no return~"
"Not at all. She'll definitely use cards with the same marks."
Hikigaya Hachiman was absolutely certain. "After exiting the game, all of her expressions were observed by me. With her ability, there's no way she could have memorized the marks on a second set of cards."
"If I'm right, all the cards she uses for cheating are of the same design."
Hikigaya finally concluded.
Sumeragi Itsuki's gambling techniques couldn't be considered sophisticated at all. Her position in the student council was entirely reliant on the vast amounts of money her family provided.
Her cheating method was simple. Among the three decks of cards she used, two of them were custom-made by the Sumeragi family company, and through some method, the backs of the cards displayed special patterns.
These patterns disappeared quickly. If Hikigaya's calculations were correct, they lasted for about 3 minutes. Moreover, if one didn't observe closely, these patterns would go unnoticed. And "observing closely" meant having superhuman observational skills, like him and Jabami Yumeko. For an average person, even holding the card right up to their face with a magnifying glass, they might still not notice anything.
Each card used for cheating had a different location for its special pattern, corresponding to a unique card. Because the pattern was subtle and disappeared within two or three minutes, it was difficult to detect cheating. For Sumeragi Itsuki, as long as she remembered these patterns and the positions where the cards appeared, this game was practically a guaranteed win.
Compared to her,
Hikigaya Hachiman and Jabami Yumeko not only had to memorize the positions but also had to remember the special patterns within a mere 2-3 minutes. The difficulty wasn't even in the same dimension.
It was laughable that Sumeragi Itsuki, still unaware, was so pleased with herself.
The intense atmosphere, the back-and-forth chase, were all just smoke and mirrors. Everything she did to create the illusion of a hard-fought battle was simply to make her opponents believe that they were on the verge of winning, thus encouraging them to continue into the next round.
'It's about time to reveal my true objective.'
Hikigaya Hachiman crossed his arms, his mind now towering like a giant, looking down on Sumeragi Itsuki's back.
Earlier, it had been mentioned that Hikigaya had some suspicions about Sumeragi Itsuki.
There were only two kinds of people who could make Hikigaya feel uneasy.
The first: a super-powerful gambling master, someone so skilled that Hikigaya's instincts felt threatened.
The second: pure evil, the foul stench of malice that made Hikigaya feel psychologically disgusted.
Now, the first possibility had been ruled out.
That left only evil.
"Hey, hey, Sumeragi Itsuki, how about we have another match?"
"We really can't afford the 30 million yen."
"Clearly, I memorized the positions of the cards just like you did! I can't accept losing like this! Please, let's play again!"
Yumeko Jabami's acting was impeccable. Her flushed face from losing, sweat dripping down her forehead, and the once noble princess cut now disheveled and panicked—she exuded all the reactions of a gambler who had just lost.
This woman really knows how to act.
Hikigaya observed from the side, his gaze drifting.
There was one thing he could never learn. While Hikigaya could see through all illusions, he himself could not create false appearances to deceive his opponents.
Disguises, cheating... These were things that required manipulation of instincts, reflexes, and fine motor skills—none of which he could do. After all, he was the kind of pure-hearted, shy herbivore who had to distract himself with prime numbers when encountering a pretty girl.
He only knew reality and self-destruction.
Heh heh heh...
Sumeragi Itsuki sneered, finally unable to hold back her vicious grin.
She grabbed Yumeko's praying hands, and with a calm demeanor, she began gently stroking the girl's flesh-colored nails, the kind that still carried a youthful, feminine aura. A perverse flush crept onto her face, her grin turning into a mad and twisted smile.
"Actually, my hobby is collecting nails," she said, and with a subtle movement, pushed Yumeko's index fingernail upward.
Licking the corner of her mouth, she reluctantly walked toward the sofa and pulled out her handbag.
"See, aren't they cute?"
Hikigaya Hachiman stood frozen, staring at the contents of Sumeragi Itsuki's collection. Inside were colorful fingernails, and if he wasn't mistaken, they all seemed to have been plucked from living people.
Sumeragi Itsuki extended her tongue, panting heavily, greedily brushing her fingers over the nails in the bag. Her gaze was lecherous, scanning the fingers of both Yumeko and Hikigaya.
She wiped the corner of her mouth.
"Actually, here's a little secret. These are all real nails~"
Boom—
At that moment, a loud thunderclap shook the sky, casting an even darker atmosphere in the air. Sumeragi Itsuki's cerulean eyes revealed an unprecedented air of malevolence.
"If only I could buy them with money... It's such a shame that no one is willing to sell them to me. But it's fine, as long as the game goes through, they'll have no choice but to offer their nails to me."
"If I stop chasing after the 20 million yen debt…"
Sumeragi Itsuki extended all ten of her slender fingers and dragged them down her own face, her eyes fixed intensely on Yumeko. "Jabami-san, I really want your fingernails~"
"Of course, a beautiful girl like you can't lose her nails. What should I do?"
She pretended to think for a moment, then pointed at Hikigaya. "Then let's take Hikigaya-kun's fingernails and put them on Jabami-san."
"What do you think, Jabami-san? Hikigaya-kun?"
Suddenly, a cold wind swept through the room, causing the candles in the dining hall to flicker. The faces of all the students present were caught in alternating shadows and light.
"Heh—"
Clap, clap, clap~
Hikigaya couldn't help but laugh, clapping his hands and turning his palm to face himself, examining his own neatly arranged fingernails. He vaguely remembered how Komachi used to nibble on his fingers like lollipops when she was little.
"Yumeko, it seems we have no way out now."
"Mm, Hikigaya-kun, we're cornered."
"Huh—" Yumeko's face flushed as she startled, covering the lower half of her face.
In her gaze, Hikigaya gently swept his fingers through his disheveled, dark bangs, flicking them upward. The moment he did so, his eyes changed.
The lifeless, dead fish eyes were suddenly consumed by the ferocity of a sleeping, wild beast. Hikigaya's expression became sharp and startling.
It was a gaze that demanded victory, with no need for words. It was the expression of someone angered by being provoked by a lower being.
He couldn't deny it—he was filled with rage.
Goddamn crazy woman.
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