(Y/N)

The Gamers Of Inazuma accepted the challenge from the directors, so in which we became the challenged party, having the rights in the rules of the game.

"Does the pledges apply in our current game?" Tenma asked.

"As long as you're inside WGC, the pledges apply in every game. Even if we're the directors, we don't have the right to violate our own laws. Also, since you're here in Card Gaming building, arcade or video games won't be allowed. Let's squeeze our minds," Sora shrugged.

Our group discussed to decide what games we will choose.

"I'll go." Tsurugi stated confidently, "I've played a lot of these kind of games before, so I'll be it."

"Wait, since when you started to play gambling games like this, Tsurugi? You just reached the legal age!" Shindou asked.

He scoffed, "Correction, its card games, Shindou-senpai. Also, wouldn't gambling games be great to play as it defines logic, don't you think?"

"Well, I don't think you're wrong. Fine, I'm in."

"So, who's the third?" Aoi wondered.

"How about you, Kirino-senpai?" Tenma pointed.

"I don't have a single idea about these, but if it can involve sports, I can consider, but its not so no."

"Kariya?" Fei suggested.

"Nope. I'm bad at games that needs thinking."

"Oh, yeah. Fei forgot that you don't have a brain. Sorry." Kirino said.

Kariya nearly spit his soda, "I swear I'll have you killed someday." The pink haired guy shrugged it off.

"I think I'll go." I volunteered.

"Really, (Y/N)-chan?" Tenma confirmed.

"Yeah, I used to play lots of card games in my uni days, so I think I can pull my sleeve in this situation." I smiled.

"Just be sure you can do this, newbie. Don't you dare lose or I'll hit you." The navy blue haired boy threatened me.

I smirked, "Oh, don't you trust me, pro gamer boy?" But soon, I changed my tone from the flirty to the angry one when I heard his sentence completely, "Who are you calling a newbie?! Don't you look down on others just because a lot of people recognize your skills! If YOU lose, I'll kick your ass!"

He rolled his eyes in reply and sighed, "Say what you want to say, I'm not listening."

"Then its settled. Now, which games have you thought of?"

The three of us exchanged glances as if we knew what was inside the brain of each other.

--

"So, have you decided?" Sora said with a smirk on his face.

"That should be obvious by now," Tsurugi banterred, "Let's start."

The first game is shiritori, or the word chain in English, where the players are required to say a word which begins with the final  of the previous word.

"I wished that the materialization shiritori is possible, but it can't be, so I'll stick with this." Shindou said, sitting in the chair facing the directors.

"Is that so? Then let's get it on."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Materialization shiritori is possible in this center, for some reasons that I cannot tell all of you."

The version of shiritori Sora was saying is where the word you will say will appear in the the room; example, when you say sakura, it can appear wherever in the said room, but if you say drawer, and a drawer is present in the current room, it will disappear. Purely fictional objects are not allowed in the game. Once the game's over, everything will return to normal. I hope you guys can understand my explanation, I'm not really good at this.

Shindou-senpai is shocked, but calmed himself after, "Fine. Aschente."

"Aschente." The siblings chorused.

Shindou-senpai started, "Hydrogen bomb."

A bomb appeared above us and it exploded, but Sora and Shiro took their turn.

"Byulkans."

The explosion ceased and all of us seems to be unharmed.

"What were you doing, Shindou-senpai?! You nearly got us killed!" Kariya complained.

"I'm sorry, I was testing if it this game is real. Wait, what is byulkans anyway?"

"Its an ancient spell for a shield. But self-desctruction on the first move? Not bad."

Shindou's turn, "Spells."

"Stallion,"

"Nation,"

The game continued and soon, the atmosphere became heavier. We were closely watching, quietly rooting for our senpai to win against this siblings.

"Mantle," Sora said. Why mantle? What is he trying to do?

Shindou's face became tense. He's got the same thought as us. "Eccentric moth comic,"

"Say, Shindou. We're you running low on ideas? Crust,"

"No, but I was observing you. You seem to enjoy this game though, not that its fun, but you knew you're going to win. How so? Timepiece,"

"That's impressive. Not much people can see though us like you did. Let's say, you gave away a hint on how you're moving in this situation. Extraterrestrial,"

"What do you mean? I haven't said any word about my plan. We're you underestimating me? Lanterned mall,"

"We don't underestimate anyone, but its not just you who's observing, we also did the same and we noticed a lot of things. I'm sorry, but I think its time to end this. Lithosphere," The siblings chorused.

No way! He erased the whole, solid part of the Earth! The floor crumbled as it lost its support, and all of us were now floating in the air.

"This is crazy! How could all of this happen? What's happening outside now!" Fei bragged worriedly.

"Its the power of materialization shiritori, but where does this magic came from?" Tenma wondered.

"Damn it," Tsurugi sworn, "I hate to say this, but the siblings has the upperhand right now. And who knew that they're playing this way."

"But, Shindou-san must have a trump card, right?" Aoi asked.

He frowned, "I'm not sure of that."

Shindou, Sora and Shiro exchanged words regarding the space and breathing, such as eos lumo, oxygen, nodes, sepia, etc. So that's the siblings' plan; nearly killing us. The remaining people in the room held their breaths, as the gases we must inhale is gone in the air.

Not long after, Sora and Shiro won, when Shindou-senpai is unable to answer back since he couldn't take not breathing any longer. The game ended, and everything went back to as it is, the Earth isn't messed up anymore. I sighed in relief. I thought we're going to die in this game.

Shindou exhaled when he got up while we approached him.

"Shindou! Are you okay?" Kirino questioned.

"Of course I am. No need to worry." He reassured. "I thought I can catch up with them, but I didn't have a chance to win, and the winner is already decided on the first turn."

"Don't say that, senpai! You did really great!" I said.

"I'm not saying that because I'm feeling down. Its true. They we're geniuses. So I'm warning you, (Y/N) and Tsurugi. Be careful."

Both of us agreed to his warning. I stepped forward in front of the directors. I've decided. Our next game will be Blackjack!

"Blackjack?" Shiro repeated.

"Yes. I suppose I'll be the leader and you'll be the player."

I hope I can get through this, since Blackjack is 100% game of chance and their 'cheating' or little tricks won't help them, or so I think.

"Aschente." I pledged.

"Aschente."

"Now, I think I'll have fun in this. Please try not to bore me, (Y/N)-chan."

I cringed as I hear him call my name, shouldn't he use proper honorifics because I'm older than him?!

I started to shuffle the cards in the instant. A game of chance? No, that's not how I'm going to play. I flashed a confident smile. I've been practicing this trick, but looks like I can try this on the both of you.

"Hit," Sora muttered and studied his cards, "Stand."

I revealed a card in the deck, "21,"

"19."

After a couple of cards were showed and bets are exchanged, I decided to render the game to its end.

"Its time for the last round. I think we know who's going to win tho."

"Blackjack is one of the rare games where the player has an advantage." Sora suddenly blurted.

I tilted my head, "What of it?"

"The dealer has to draw another card whenever they're below 17, so they have a high chance of going bust. But you haven't had that happen until now. Pretty impressive luck."

He placed his cards on the table without even looking at it, "Stand."

"Looks like the game's over." I said while facing his cards up.

Sora sighed loudly and dropped the remaining cards in his hand. "Yeah, its over."

My eyes widened as I shruddered when I saw his cards. It was a King and an Ace!

"With the natural blackjack, you get back 2.5 times what you bet. I win."

"H-How? What did you do? I refuse to accept this! How did I lose?" I demanded.

"Oh? Wasn't blackjack a game of pure chance?" He asked me.

I looked at him intently, signalling for him to continue.

"Card counting."

"Card cou-, what's that?"

"You turn the cards into numbers and count them. Cards between 2 and 6 are +1, 10 and above are -1, and 7 through 9 are 0. You count the numbers of cards that have been played to mathematically find a numerical probability for what will played next."

"So you used math in the game?" Kariya butted in.

"Yeah."

"Wait, isn't that cheating?!" I protested.

"Cheating refers to things like the forced shuffle you were doing." He smirked.

"Y-You noticed?"

"I noticed it as well." Tsurugi remarked, "But the problem is-"

"It made the card counting easier." Sora continued.

I fell to the ground in despair. He used my own trick to beat me?! I can't believe it! Shindou-senpai was right and I'm way too confident. I shouldn't have tried...

"Don't worry about it (Y/N)-chan." Tenma comforted me. "We still have a chance and you played great!"

"Well, I hope played better that my opponent didn't see through my trick."

"Hah, there's no way I'll ignore how weird you shuffle the cards. Better luck next time." Sora mocked.

I sighed in disappointment, but I never expected a pat in the head from Tsurugi in the next moment.

"That trick was dirty, but not bad."

My eyes widened, "I thought you're going to hit me if I lose?"

"Nah, thank me for the mercy I have bestowed to you. Unless you want me to kick your pathetic ass?"

Damnit, I shouldn't have hoped. He can be good and the next second he's mean as hell. Argh, I don't know anymore.

"I won't promise, but I'll do my best for this last shot." He told us.

"You better, Tsurugi." Kirino said.

"We're cheering for you, so win!" said Tenma.

He sat in front of the siblings as he decided for the game. "I want to play poker for this match."

"Poker... Its been a while since I played this game, but hey, the last time I did, my opponent was flat defeated."

Tsurugi smirked, "Was that supposed to make me cower in fear? I just said that I won't falter, so wish us luck. Can we start the game, shall we?"

"If you say so. Aschente."

"Aschente."

The match started and the atmosphere became so stiff that I could hardly breathe. They've drawn and shuffled the cards and took turns. They both retained their poker faces, making it hard for us to guess whatever in their minds.

"Say, Tsurugi. The reason why all of you made your way here is to help the Minecraft Company, which was hacked by a mass of unidentified type of virus, right?" Sora asked.

He replied, "What of it?"

"The traces of the activities of the said viruses goes back to the bombing incident of Lancelot messenger. Are you sure you don't know anything about it?"

"I have no idea on who wanted to destroy my family's company. Besides, I won't be going this far to search for answers for the damned matter, wouldn't I?"

"Perharps," Sora drew a card from the deck, "The virus perpetrator already gave you 3 clues that you can't find out after all."

I swear we all saw how Tsurugi's eye twitch, but Sora was talking about how strongly connected he is to the virus attack. Were they monitoring the events after this started? These siblings are so clever.

"We don't rush. We'll find out soon." The navy haired boy managed to retort.

"Then you have to rush. The time is ticking. REMEMBER." Sora pointed to where his brain is located to emphasize his last word.

Seems like Tsurugi took the message we can't figure out and looked at his opponent intently.

"Well? Enough of this chat. Ready to show?"

"I'm on it."

Tsurugi flipped his deck to reveal his cards.

"Full house."

We were surprised. Now that's what you call an outstanding move!"

"As expected from Tsurugi. What a skilled gamer." Shindou muttered.

Fei looked up to him, "I wouldn't deny to that, senpai. He's so cool!"

Kariya snorted in the corner, "Look at this boy gathering all the attention instantly. I have skills too, its just that I don't use it."

"What are you muttering in there, Kariya? Prayers so we can win?" Kirino asked.

"No. A death incantation for everyone in this room."

Kirino just rolled his eyes in reply.

It was Sora's turn to show his cards, and that's when we felt a pang of shock and doom go straight in our insides.

"Royal Flush."

Tsurugi's eyes widened as he stood up from his seat and stared at the flipped cards.

"How..." Tsurugi whispered, covering his mouth in thought.

"Tsurugi..." Tenma worriedly called.

"So? Have you found out?" Sora smirked once again.

Tsurugi looked at him and laughed after a few seconds, "I see. You used a trick... and I was a fool to not notice..."

"No, you did, its just too late when you realized it. And so after the 3 games, none of you emerged victorious against me. I commend your efforts though, but the bet is a bet. We won't sign this contract from the game company." Sora stated.

Tenma stepped forward and declared, "We refuse to accept this! You didn't say there's a limit on the games that can be played, so lets play another batch of games!"

Shiro, who just woke up, replied, "Even though your chance against us only stands for 1 out of billion?"

"Then we'll play until we get that 1% in our hand! We can't stop here, now that we made it this far!"

"But Tenma, we just lost our aces in this, how can we—" Aoi's sentence was cut short.

"A person cannot lose everytime. There will be a chance as long as he lives. I don't mind losing for millions of times, as long as we try hard again and reach for that small chance of victory."

When I heard Tenma's words, I was moved to the core. He was brimming this light, positive aura around him, affecting everyone of us. His fighting spirit is so strong... I felt kind of envious.

Tenma is still planning to retort, but Shindou tapped his shoulder, signalling for him to halt.

"Stop it now, Tenma. We've heard enough. We won."

We turned our heads to Shindou. "What are you talking about, senpai?" Fei questioned.

"If they are planning to reject this contract at the first place, they wouldn't have complied with it by telling Tsurugi  what they knew about the incident, would they?"

"Oh, so that was it. They already helped us even if the letter hasn't been signed." Kirino affirmed.

"But what are you going to do about it? The bets told us that you must win atleast one before we forge this alliance." The older sibling reasoned.

Shindou replied again, "Pledge #6 states that any bets made in accordance with the pledges must be upheld, but the challenger can go against this pledge and change bets anytime. I knew you changed your decision while playing against our main ace, so there will be no use to conceal it."

Sora chuckled as he and his sister signed the contract, "Your deduction was way too good, Shindou. You got us."

Tenma's eyes sparkled when he saw the letter being signed, "Whoa, we did it! Endou-san will be happy to know this!"

"I thought we'll be screwed, but oh well, what a surprise." Kariya said.

"Now, I officially proclaim the alliance of Minecraft Co. and World Gaming Center." Sora and Shiro chorused.

I sighed in relief. Everyone pumped their fists down and gave each other hi-fives. We were able to do the favor our admins asked us. Now this is only a single step of solution from this misery. What should we, or I, do next?

"Pressuring yourself, eh?" Tsurugi said, walking to my side.

"I don't know what are you talking about."

"Yeah, you surely don't know. You're an idiot after all."

"You little—" I tried to punch him, but he caught my hand mid-air.

"That's not gonna work on me." He simpered and dropped my hand from his grip.

"Hmph. You called me an idiot but you were fooled as well a while ago."

"I don't deny that fact. I was fooled, so learned and I'll apply it next time."

"That doesn't sound like you, Tsurugi."

"Oh? What do you expect me to say then?"

"I imagine you saying 'That bastard just had luck playing in his hand' or 'he cheated, apperently a strong player doesn't rely on cheats' whatsoever."

He chuckled lightly, "That's how arrogant you think of me? I'm not a prideful person, you know, but there are times that I just become like Escanor."

"Yeah, thought so. But that anime reference is so fleek."

After the requests from our side is being settled, the siblings agreed to the amendments. The small meeting is finished.

"I'm so glad we were able to make them sign the contract. But I'm actually serious about trying again and again if we fail to do so." Tenma admitted.

"Tenma, you probably should lessen your stubborness." Adviced Shindou.

The brown haired boy laughed. Tsurugi's phone rang as the conversation went on.

He accepted the call "Hello?"

"Kyousuke, you have to hurry, come back here!"

"Nii-san? Why? Did something happen?"

After his brother's statement, Tsurugi let out a surprised gasp. "I'm coming in there." He hang up.

"Guys, I need to go back. Fast." He told his friends.

"Why? Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going back to my house. Its currently on fire."

—

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BOOM IM GONNA BURN KYOUSUKE'S HOUSE AHAHAHAH

thats it for the latest chap! ill try to update this week bcus its our SEMBREAK and im in the mood to write

yes, your comments made me want to write and I thank everyone for reading this fanfiction

im planning on ending this book next year if I continue to write everything down every week or month, bcus i already have the damn plot xDd

please stay with me until this story ends!

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byebye