The God Gambler: A COTE x Kakegurui Fanfic

Chapter 12: Flaws

Yumeko kept walking without returning not even a glance. She kept her posture straight while holding her bag with both of her hands.

She stopped walking in front of an ordinary classroom, I think it was one the rooms of the first years, nothing special.

She opened the sliding door, walked in as we followed foot.

Looks like my hunch is correct

"Y-Yumeko...?" Suzui called to the still silent Yumeko, confused.

She finally spoke up after minute of continuous silence.

"This room is directly below the Cha-do room. An ordinary classroom, nothing strange about it."

"...?"

Suzui seems to be still at lost. I patted his shoulder, trying to tell him to just listen.

"What you call a "Badger" is an old type of trickery for Chouhan-bokuchi." She started explaining. "First, a small hole is opened in the floor. Above that, a game of Chouhan-bokuchi goes on, but because it is covered in white cloth, the hole is not visible at a glance."

Putting a cloth or anything to hide the hole is an outmost importance to cover the trickery. And besides, in a normal Chouhan-bokuchi, the cloth will also serve as a line for the dealer and the player.

"Next, there's a space in Japanese houses' floors, yes? A trickster hides there in the space."

In a traditional Japanese house and some old inns with wooden foundations, you can see a space between the foundation and the floor, while the building itself is being supported by beams beneath it.

The space is enough for a person to hide underneath it, and sometimes, some buildings even cover this space to avoid unnecessary problems. This works in favor of the trickery.

"The trickster checks the number on the die by the light of a candle through the white cloth, and depending on the desired outcome, they stab a needle through the cloth to move the dice. This way, the outcome will be beneficial to the bookmaker of the game."

Using this trick is something you must expect on a game of Chouhan-bokuchi, after all, no one will play fair when money is on the line.  But not anyone can play the role of the badger, after all, problems and incidents may arise if the trickster is a beginner.

Some may say that, just because there's a Badger means the game will always end up favoring the bookmaker.

It's possible. After all, when adding together the opposite sides of a usual cubical dice, the sum is always seven. So I'm pretty sure, or much less guaranteed that being a badger is by no means an easy task.

"Tricksters of the past worked with much simpler thoughts and slow pace." Yumeko formed a smile, tilting her head to the side as to look at us.

Looks like Suzui, who's been silent this whole time while listening to Yumeko's revelation of the situation, still has something on his mind.

"Ahh... speaking of which, I feel like I've heard about something, but that?" 

"Fufu... this is beyond my wildest imagination. This school- No, the student council president..." Yumeko lowered her head and kept silent for a second. I wonder what kind of expression she is making.

"...It's most possible that the president did the same thing with the magnets. The sword that had fallen into slot 24 was 'repelled' by an opposite magnet."

The possibility of such scenario is definitely high. After all, there's no other way for the sword to change places but to use the opposite side of a magnet with the same opposite force.