Since both Yukio and Amasawa were student council members, it would have made perfect sense if they really had come by on inspection. Even so, the wariness in Hosen's eyes did not lessen in the slightest. Every time he saw Yukio, the bridge of his nose would start aching again.
Ever since his first attempt to target Ayanokoji had failed, Hosen had already figured out that Amasawa was the one who had leaked the secret. On top of that, Yukio still held leverage over him, so he had no choice but to deal with him carefully.
After all, by their agreement, he still owed Yukio one favor.
Amasawa could not even be bothered to spare him a glance. She just grabbed a little bowl lined with plastic, crouched down, and started carefully trying to scoop goldfish with the paper net.
Yukio, meanwhile, looked at Hosen with amusement.
"So you couldn't run gambling, so now you've switched to festival scam games?"
Even Yukio had to admit Hosen's imagination was something else. Back when each class had submitted questions to the student council about the cultural festival, one of them had left a deep impression on him.
It had been a question from Hosen of first-year D-Class, asking whether gambling booths would be allowed at the festival.
Yukio had shut that down immediately.
He liked Advanced Nurturing High School well enough, but he had absolutely no desire to turn the campus into Hyakkaou Academy from Kakegurui.
Hosen looked openly dissatisfied. "What's the difference? If gambling's banned, why are these festival games allowed?"
As he said that, he walked over to the neighboring booth, which was a shooting gallery. It looked like that one was also being run by first-year D-Class. The student manning it shrank back nervously the moment Hosen approached and did not dare say a word.
Hosen casually picked up one of the cork guns and aimed at a cute stuffed toy.
From the angle, even if he missed, it should not have been by much. But when he pulled the trigger, the cork shot so high it nearly hit the ceiling, barely missing the booth curtain altogether.
Then he grabbed another cork gun. This time he hit the target cleanly, but the stuffed toy on the shelf did not fall. It only shifted back slightly. Judging from that, it would probably take two more direct hits before it finally toppled.
No explanation was needed.
Just those two shots—and the way the prize barely moved—made everything obvious.
Hosen had rigged both the shooting gallery and the prizes.
To put it simply, this was less a festival game and more a scam.
Once he was done showing off, Hosen casually tossed the cork gun back.
"See? Guests come to play these games because they want prizes. If we want to avoid losing money, we have to rig things behind the scenes. So what's the real difference between festival games and gambling? Isn't it all just about who manipulates the odds better?"
"Ha!"
Amasawa exploded before Yukio could even comment. She held up the paper net, which now had a huge tear in it.
"So this was rigged too? I knew it! I was wondering why it tore so easily!"
"..."
Hosen's rough expression darkened, but after glancing at Yukio standing beside her, he forced himself to hold back. Even so, his tone turned thoroughly nasty.
"That's just because you suck. It has nothing to do with the net."
"There are too many booths for D-Class to manage alone, so we teamed up with first-year B-Class to set up all these festival games."
"I rigged plenty of things on their side to keep the money flowing, but our goldfish booth's the one place where we actually spent good money. This one's clean."
"Even casinos know better than to make the customer lose every single time. If you do that, nobody comes back. Festival games work the same way. You need at least one place where the customer walks away satisfied."
"So if you can't scoop a goldfish, that's on you. Don't go throwing accusations around."
"Is that so?"
Amasawa's anger came fast and went just as fast. The next second, she was cheerful again, already taking a fresh paper net and continuing to scoop. She ignored Hosen entirely and instead turned to Yukio.
"Senpai, just wait and see. I'm going to catch one and give it to you."
That line made Yukio's expression turn faintly strange.
Usually it was the older guy taking a little girl to look at goldfish. Somehow Amasawa had completely flipped the script, with the younger girl insisting she'd scoop one up for her senpai.
What was this, exactly?
Still, seeing how serious she looked, Yukio found himself watching.
Amasawa's face was tight with concentration. She held the bowl steady in her left hand, the tiny paper net pinched in her right, hovering over the water as she waited for the right moment.
After a little while, a beautiful red-and-gold goldfish lazily swam into position beneath her net, flicking its tail in small easy motions.
Amasawa's dark golden eyes flashed.
Her right hand darted down, sending the net slicing into the water.
And by the time she tried to lift it, the paper had already torn.
The stirred-up water startled the little fish away.
Hosen snorted with laughter at the sight.
That? That was the level she was working with, and she had the nerve to accuse him of rigging the paper net?
Even a random little kid from the guests would probably be better at this than Amasawa. Anyone who had played once should at least know the net had to enter the water slowly. It was flimsy enough already—if you jammed it in that fast, of course it was going to tear.
"Is it that funny, Hosen-kun?"
In front of Yukio, Amasawa was a sweet, adorable underclassman.
In front of Hosen, not so much.
She was still smiling, but now there was something distinctly dangerous in it.
"Believe me, I'll flip your whole goldfish stall right now. I'll pay you the equivalent in points if I have to. But your business is dead for the day."
Could she really do that?
Hosen heard the threat and instinctively looked at Yukio, the student council president, apparently hoping he might rein in someone openly threatening another student.
Yukio, of course, was famous for being protective and shamelessly biased.
"Amasawa, flipping it over would be a waste. Better to haul all the fish back to the student council room and keep them in a big tank there. Watching them swim around might help everyone relax."
"...!"
The veins on Hosen's forehead bulged so hard they practically formed cartoon stress marks.
This shameless pair really had no business calling themselves human, did they? Casually discussing how to steal his goldfish stall right to his face?
But when you were stuck under someone's roof, you had to bow your head.
No matter how bitterly he resented it, this was one loss he had no choice but to swallow.
So Hosen personally reached in, skillfully scooped up the two prettiest goldfish, bagged them in little water-filled plastic pouches, and handed them over.
That finally soothed Amasawa's anger.
As for Hosen, regret hit him so hard he wanted to slap himself. Why the hell had he laughed out loud in the first place? If he had just kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened.
Now he wanted nothing more than for this pair to leave as fast as possible and go make some other stall miserable.
Amasawa was pretty satisfied too, and she was just about ready to drag Yukio off to the next booth.
Yukio, however, did not move right away. He simply asked:
"Hosen. You remember you still owe me one thing, right?"
For a moment that question sucked all the playful festival atmosphere right out of the air. Hosen's expression sharpened.
"You're planning to stir something up during the cultural festival?"
"Smart."
Yukio nodded.
"When the time comes, I'll call you."
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.