"Katsuragi, are you that confident?"
Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Ren. He was leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, resting—completely unconcerned about the possibility of losing.
The terms of their wager were clear: the gambler, blinded by his losses, would not bring back anything related to money. Not just cash—anything that could be liquidated. No real estate documents, no jewelry, no valuables of any kind. A casino only accepts one thing in the end, so Yukino couldn't understand why Ren was so… indifferent.
"Yukinoshita, if you don't drink that, it's going to get cold."
Instead of answering, Ren reached over, took the straw from her hand, tore off the wrapper, and poked it into her milk tea. Then he made a small "please enjoy" gesture.
"Katsuragi, please answer me."
Yukino stared at him. She wanted to know where that absolute confidence came from.
Ren opened his eyes and raised one index finger—signaling "1."
"1? What does that mean?"
"This question isn't part of our bet," Ren said, wagging his finger back and forth with a playful lack of seriousness. "The price for the answer is a batch of cookies, hand-baked by you, Yukinoshita. If you don't agree, I won't say a word."
"Fine. Deal."
Looking down at the milk tea in her hands, Yukino agreed. She treated it as a return gift for the drink he'd bought her.
Ren sat up and looked at her seriously.
"Yukinoshita, what do you think is the most valuable thing in this world?"
Yukino began to think. From a material standpoint and a spiritual one, plenty of things were valuable. But "the most valuable"? Everyone's answer would be different.
Then her hand was lifted slightly, and the paper straw touched her lips. She instinctively took a sip.
Gulp, gulp, gulp…
The sugar from the pearl milk tea quickly soothed her high-speed thoughts.
"In this society," Ren said, "the most valuable thing is people. And the least valuable thing… is also people. Especially women."
"In times of prosperity, a woman is worth a thousand gold; in times of chaos, she is worth a bucket of rice."
"Prosperity and chaos are just concepts," Ren continued. "For that gambler, right now is undoubtedly a 'time of chaos.'"
"Katsuragi, you think too poorly of people."
Yukino frowned, clearly rejecting his cynicism. Everyone has human rights. Even in this flawed country, she refused to believe human trafficking still existed in open society. She refused to believe anyone would use their wife or child as a gambling chip.
Ren didn't argue.
He only tilted his chin toward the casino entrance.
The man had returned.
He was dragging a woman behind him—her eyes lifeless and hollow. She didn't resist. She let herself be pulled forward even as tears streamed down her face.
The thugs who had blocked him earlier stepped aside with mocking grins, letting him drag his wife into the den of vice.
This wasn't the first time they'd seen it.
The guard had deliberately mentioned "chips" earlier to provoke him, stoking his desperation to return to the table. From the moment the man first tasted the "bait" and showed his greed, the casino owner had marked him as prey. They fed him until his ambition swelled, until he truly believed he could get rich overnight. Now they were reeling him in, occasionally dropping a bit of bait to keep the fantasy alive.
A man who has tasted the sweetness of easy wealth can't let go. He only sinks deeper, until one day he drags the people closest to him into the abyss.
The bait they'd thrown out was coming back with interest—and with a "bonus": the man's wife.
"Yukinoshita," Ren said, watching with cold indifference, his voice flat and steady, "you lost."
Yukino didn't even think about the bet anymore.
The moment she saw the woman being dragged in, her first instinct was to throw the car door open and stop it.
Click.
Ren's hand clamped onto her wrist like a vice, pinning her to the seat.
"Katsuragi, let me go! Are you just going to sit there and watch this?!"
Yukino struggled violently, her voice rising into a furious shout. She was truly enraged. It was one thing for Ren to be unmoved—she wouldn't force him to play hero—but to stop her?
By what right?
"On what grounds, Yukino?" Ren asked, not raising his voice. "In what capacity, with what reason would you save her?"
"As a stranger who doesn't even know her?" His grip didn't loosen. "Or by using the power of the Yukinoshita family?"
Yukino kept struggling. If she hadn't seen it, that would be one thing. But now that she had, she couldn't sit here and do nothing.
When she realized she couldn't break his hold, she turned on him, glaring. Her voice dropped—low, hoarse, shaking.
"Then why? Why could you help Shoko when she was being bullied, but you won't help that woman?"
"Because Shoko has light in her eyes," Ren said immediately. "She has a yearning for life."
"And that woman has nothing." His gaze didn't flicker. "Her eyes are empty. She's already dead inside."
"If there was even a spark of light, a single emotion, or the slightest resistance, I would have gone."
"But there's nothing." Ren's stare sharpened, cutting straight through her. "She did nothing. She simply accepted her fate of being sold."
"How can someone who has given up on themselves expect anyone else to save them?"
Ren held her gaze, unblinking, his words turning harder.
"Just like you when you were a child."
"Your family was waiting to save you," he said, voice quiet but merciless, "but even though you had the means to stop it, you gave up on yourself."
As he spoke, the scene seemed to warp.
The woman being dragged into the casino blurred—becoming a young Yukino. The girl whose indoor shoes were stolen. The girl isolated by her peers.
Ren and Yukino, sitting here as bystanders, became reflections of her parents and Haruno—watching from the sidelines.
Countless times her things were stolen. Countless times she was pushed away.
And yet, if Yukino had only spoken up, her parents and sister would have solved everything.
Yukino's emotions churned violently, but her struggle weakened. The strength drained from her arms. Finally, she went still.
This wasn't about "seeking the genuine thing."
It wasn't a "casual walk."
Ren had lied to her.
He had used a method bordering on cruelty to force her to experience her own powerlessness—and the sorrow of her family—firsthand.
When Ren released her wrist, Yukino didn't hesitate for even a second.
She swung her palm toward his face with everything she had.
Ren caught her hand mid-air.
Yukino stared at him, her eyes full of venom.
"Katsuragi… you really are a piece of scum."
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