The Game of Chance
“EVEN!”
The dice landed... on a two and a five. Rei looked up and grinned at her exuberant student. “Sorry, Mina-chan, that's another two tokens for me. Care to raise the stakes?”
At that, Mina met Rei's gaze, and raised a suggestive eyebrow. Rei sighed and shook her head. “I was referring to money, Mina-chan. We'll never get down to the bottom if you keep only betting two. And here I was about to go on thinking you liked to gamble.”
“I do!” Mina sighed and leaned back. “I think I've lost my edge though.”
“All right, ready for the lesson then?”
Again, Mina glanced up, surprised. “I thought we were taking a break from lessons.”
Rei shook her head for a negative. “No, gambling's a key trait for pirates, too. All right, lean over here and look at these dice.”
Mina did as she was told, leaning in so that their noses were only a few inches apart. As Mina watched Rei's fingers nimbly roll the dice so that she could see each face, her eyes widened in realization. Her yell knocked Rei back from her leaning position, along with a noticeable wince. “Hey! No fair! You were cheating!”
Rubbing her sore ear woefully, Rei nodded. “Next time you decide to yell, back up first.” Once the ringing had stopped, Rei inquired, knowing full well what the answer was, “Would you like to know how, if you were the one picking odd or even?”
Mina nodded, looking cutely apologetic. “Pretty please?”
“As a side note... apologizing, especially like that, make you all the less like a pirate.” Though Mina opened her mouth to protest, Rei raised a single finger and shook her head. “It doesn't matter. Here, hold these.”
Rei handed her the dice, as well as the cup that they were using to roll around the dice and hide them before revealing the outcome. Once Mina had taken them, Rei instructed, “All right, now put the dice in and roll. I'll call it when you put it down.”
“Even.” The dice came up odd. To further demonstrate, Rei asked Mina to call the next one.
“Odd.” The dice came up odd.
Rei repeated it, choosing odd. The dice came up even. “Do you understand how it works yet? It's no longer individual luck. The dice will always agree with the dealer. These, I blessed myself, but Haruka showed me some others that she has that the other pirates use. You could tell that I somehow fixed the results, because you probably sense my energy from them. The other senshi probably wouldn't be able to, unless they were paying close attention.”
“Why did I feel it so easily then?”
At that, Rei grinned, and leaned over to lightly brush her lips over Mina's. “Because you love me.” Rei paused, and then made a smooth transition back to her original position, flicking her hair back over her shoulder. “And also, because if you couldn't sense it now, then this lesson would be hopeless. You can have those dice, by the way. Just so long as you don't get me anything if the dice help you win it. Go ahead, try to defy the dice while I go find the... necessary components for a second level of gambling lessons.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Don't worry about it- I'll be back soon.”
Mina watched as Rei walked to the cabin door, opening it, and closing it behind her. She then stared at the dice in her hands. In her eyes, they were glowing with a warm, soothing radiance. In my hands, these dice give me the same feeling that her kisses do. On a much smaller degree, but still... it's undeniable.
“Even.” Mina started practicing with the dice, rolling it with her hands so she could see what really happened. It landed on a total of six.
The next time, Mina waited until the dice had stopped rolling- at a pair of twos, to call out, “Odd.” She watched as one of the dice glowed a familiar red, before it turned so that a three was face up. When she blinked, the glow was gone.
“Cool... Thanks Rei-chan... I'm going to treasure this...”
“Good- I'd hate to see a present gone to waste in the trash.” Mina looked up to see Rei reenter with Haruka and Makoto. Between the latter two was a rather suspicious looking crate...
“What's in the box?”
Rei dismissed her question idly as she took her seat again across from Mina. After setting the box down between Haruka's and Rei's seats, the two official pirates joined them at the table. “It's nothing much. Mako-chan won't let us drink alcohol until we actually turn twenty-one... so this is compensation. But before that... You know how to play BS, don't you? (pretend she's saying the full word, if it suits you. I won't say it though)”
When Rei held up a deck of cards, Mina nodded enthusiastically. “Ooh fun! But wait... how do we gamble for this?”
“It's fairly simple. Everyone starts out with ten gold coins, twenty silver, and thirty bronze coins. Each card is worth one bronze coin. As you know, five bronze equals one silver, and five silver equals one gold. If you get someone to pick up five cards, they forfeit five bronze pieces to you. If you lose all of your coins before you lose all of your cards, you get booted from that game, and the rest of your cards go into the middle. When only one person has all the gold, or when one loses all their cards, they win. Got it?”
Mina nodded again, followed by Makoto. Haruka asked, leaning forward in her backwards chair, “Why so little cash though? We have more than this. A lot more.”
“When you learn to swim, do you start in shallow water with experienced swimmers, or take a boat into the middle of the ocean and jump?”
“Uhh... fine, I see your point. Didn't you say we were going to concentrate on weapon practice though?”
As Rei began shuffling and dealing out the cards, she answered, “This is weapon training- just without blades. Mind over matter, as they say.”
Through a round of coin flipping, Rei was chosen to go first. “Two Aces.”
Haruka went next, casually placing two cards of her own on Rei's. “Two Twos. I'm not bad at cards but... why the change of plan?”
As Mina placed her one card on the table, Rei effortlessly responded, “BS Mina-chan. Haven't you heard? A woman's allowed to change her mind.”
Haruka laughed while Mina took up the five cards, pushing five bronze across the table to where Rei could reach it and pull it into her own stash. Makoto put a card down before adding her own comment. “One Four. But you know, Rei-sensei, most teachers don't sit down and gamble with their students.”
“One Five. Most teachers aren't teaching their students to be efficient pirates.”
“One Six.” Haruka place her card on the table. “You mean we weren't efficient before?”
Rei airily commented, keeping her eyes trained on her cards, “BS Ruka. And why don't you tell me?”
Haruka sighed as she swept up the cards, moving three bronze to Rei. Mina placed her two cards on the table, bluff uncalled. Makoto answered Rei's question after placing two cards on the pile. “Two Eights. I'll admit, Rei-sensei, we don't normally do even half the things you had us do yesterday, but I can see the reasoning for doing it all.”
“Two Nines. Of course you wouldn't do it before; you aren't expected to as captains, but you might as pirates.”
“BS Rei.” Makoto called.
Rei grinned, and flipped over her last two cards. A pair of Nines. Grumbling, Makoto took the stack, and forked over a silver and a bronze.
Haruka placed a card on the table. “One Ten. Yeah, who would have thought? Me, the greatest pirate that ever lived- washing the deck like a common servant.”
“BS.” Mina and Rei were in sync, and as they looked up at each other, both grinned. Haruka sighed again as she took back her card.
Then she looked between them and asked, “Who should I give my bronze to?”
Both grinned wider before answering, “She can have it.”
Makoto reached over and swiped the coin from Haruka's grasp. “Gee thanks!” The two younger girls glanced at each other, but shrugged in acceptance.
Mina put two cards down. “Two Jacks. Hey, it's not like I have experience doing any of that menial cleaning either.”
Rei briefly considered calling Mina's bluff, but decided not to, for the sake of letting the pile grow. Makoto put down a single card, but Rei again resigned against the chance to call.
“One King. And Mina-chan? I happen to remember a certain incident back at the Kingdom that had you helping the servants for more than enough time to learn the trade. Though, according to the remains of five dishes now residing in the trash bin..
“One Ace. Really, Mina-chan? What'd you do?”
A light blush stained Mina's guilty facade as she put down two cards. “Three Twos. I don't want to repeat it, if you don't mind.”
“One Three. Aw come on, Mina-chan. It can't be all that bad, can it?”
Rei let out a soft laugh as she placed a card down on the table. “One Four. You'd be surprised.”
Haruka debated calling on Rei. She herself had two fours, but the stack was getting rather large... it was better not to risk it. “Two Fives. Now I really want to know. Come on, relive the Kingdom days for us!”
Rei met Mina's glance with amusement, shrugging as if to say, 'Your choice.'
Minako murmured, “One Six. And again, I'd rather not talk about it.”
Makoto placed her cards down. “Two Sevens. Bah, we'll pester you about it later if you don't tell us now.”
Rei smirked. “Yes indeed. Which path? Pester now, or tease later? One Eight.”
Haruka placed one card down without anything more than her mandatory announcement. “One Nine.”
Minako growled softly as she placed down a card. “One Ten. No.”
Makoto intoned, “Two Jacks.”
“Well, let's compromise. A basic summary in return for no teasing hereafter. One Queen.”
Minako menacingly murmured, “BS Rei.”
Rei noticeably flinched, looking from the pile to Minako. “You sure about that?”
Noticing her hesitation, Minako identified it and grinned in triumph. Carefully, she turned over the last card, a Jack. Her grin widened. "Pay up, Rei-sensei.”
Rei groaned as she took the pile of 21 cards and added it to her hand. She then took four silvers and a bronze to pass over to Minako, who was positively giddy with having beaten Rei in at least one round. “Gutsy luck.”
In her free hand, Minako held up the pair of dice that Rei had given her between three fingers. “Nah, I'm just gifted.”
Rei rolled her eyes softly as Haruka continued on with her turn. The rest of the game was completed without much rise. The thought of compromise had been forgotten by the streak of correct calling of bluffs that had hit Rei. No lie went unpunished, as she called every single one. Even small piles of two or three cards had piled up, which ultimately left it to Mina and Rei. Haruka and Makoto had both run down on their luck, neither having succeeded in losing their cards before their money. After their hands were added to the pile, Mina and Rei went head to head, one card to one card. Not much later, they were both down to their last cards, which meant that whoever called a correct bluff first, would win.
“One Queen,” Rei murmured softly.
Not having much choice, if she didn't want Rei to win, Minako whispered, “BS.”
Her expression revealed nothing as Rei slowly reached for the card, and painstakingly turned it over. It was the Ace... of Hearts.
Smiling softly, Rei stood up. “Congratulations Mina. I didn't expect it to drag out so long... we should probably get ourselves some dinner soon.”
At that, Haruka yelped and stood up, as did Makoto. “Dinner already? Geez, I had no idea. Come on then Mako- let's see what the cooks are making without you.”
That was all the encouragement Makoto needed to all but sprint out the door, with Haruka close at her heels. Mina continued to sit, however, and watched as Rei gracefully stretched. She was startled out of her reverie when Rei murmured softly, “The Ace of Hearts... Didn't you say, once, that it was your favorite card because it was Cupid's Arrow, with the A for Ace also referring to 'Arrow'?”
While attempting to remember when she had told Rei that, as it was as good as forbidden for cards to be seen within the Palace walls, Mina replied, “Yeah. But when did I-”
“Shh.” Rei froze, her eyes darting around the room. “Do you feel that?”
“Wha-” But then Mina stopped too, and her eyes widened in recognition. “Already? But... but how?”
A single name left Rei's lips before she quickly stalked out the door, Mina close in tow. “Setsuna.”
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