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Chapter 12.5: Intermission II
June 18th, 2014—One year ago—Shanghai—A Kowloon flat
“Thanks to you, I won the first bet of my life.”
The youth, later known as the world’s greatest gambler, kept hearing Fukuro’s final words in his dreams. At this point, he was still just a normal 12-year-old boy.
*
When Kurosaki Masaya woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar bed. You may call it a bed, but it basically boiled down to iron pipes piled together with a blanket. The only other object in the room was a round chair. And on that sat a young man with sickly skin.
“…Sheara?” Masaya muttered while pushing up his body.
Like a rabbit glared at by a snake, the young man’s shoulders jumped up, as he fell down from the chair.
“You are…Lewis Sheara, right? The one from London’s Royal Music Academy…” Masaya said to find confirmation.
Although his eyes were hollowed out, his skin having lost color, Masaya recognized the genius pianist he had once seen in a magazine—before he completely disappeared at just 14 years old.
“…I’m surprised…you know…my real name… But keep that…a secret… My name is Tobi… Can you speak Japanese? I can…go with Chinese…too…” The young man exclaimed.
He must have suffered some kind of psychological harm because he couldn’t keep one sentence going.
“Oh, right.”
Tobi took out a burned side bag from his jacket and showed it off with both his hands. Masaya may have just recovered from a cold, but upon seeing that, his face lit up.
“Thank you. It’s very important to me, so…”
“Yeah? Good. I went through quite the trouble to get this.”
“Huh? Oh, um…”
Tobi began explaining the circumstances. Or rather, he tried to explain everything despite his struggle to explain everything. Hence, Masaya had to fill in the blanks from time to time. According to Tobi, Fukuro had taken home all the belongings he found in Chan’s betting ring. Fukuro’s disciple Karasu seemed to have taken a liking to this bag, which complicated things. He tried to steal it from the youth while he was collapsed on the ground, but thanks to Tobi’s resistance, Karasu gave up and then decided to buy his own bag. Tobi never had the kind of personality to rebel against his family, and he didn’t ask for any gratitude, but Masaya still thanked him. He was not used to receiving gratitude like that, so he just awkwardly laughed it off.
“If you’re…awake…then maybe you should…introduce yourself… Suzuran is…overseas for a mission…right now…but the others…are in the room next to ours…”
When they stepped out of the room and into the hallway, they ran into a large man who looked like a beast. He wanted to offer his hand and shake the youth’s, but Tobi got between them.
“Tsubame’s face…is bad for young children…”
“…My face, is it? Well, I will let that slide. More importantly, your ability to talk still needs a lot of work, eh? Well, it’s a lot better than normal when you’re just lost in your own fantasies…”
Masaya entered the living room, where he was greeted by three people staring into a laptop, having a heated discussion. One boy and girl wore clear punk fashion, facing off against a gloomy-looking man with long hair.
“Bro Karasu! I’m telling you, you gotta raise! Raise!”
“What’s your issue, Yodaka? All you’ve been asking for is a call or raise.”
“And check.”
“Waaah, you bastard, Bro Karasu!”
The man wearing punk fashion—Yodaka—slapped the back of the head belonging to the man they called Karasu. Right behind him appeared a man with the face of a beast.
“If you dare to insult Brother Karasu, I will not stand for that, Yodaka.”
“Huh? You picking a fight with me now, baldy?”
Yodaka put his fists together and cracked his fingers. However, before the situation could escalate, Yodaka spotted the youth standing behind the giant Tsubame and showed a beaming smile.
“Oh, it’s the newcomer! Awake, are you? Old Man Fukuro told us about you. You’re insanely strong when it comes to betting, right?” Yodaka slipped past Tsubame on quick feet and slapped Masaya on the back.
Masaya swayed back and forth, just barely keeping himself standing.
“Yo, Bro Karasu? We got a genius in gambling right here, so I’m gonna have him play for me.”
Masaya remained bewildered but he looked at the screen. Two cards were shown in the corner of the screen, with the shared cards in the center. To the right, he had four choices—raise, call, check, and fold.
“Do you know the rules of Texas Hold’em?”
The man with long hair—Karasu—breathed out a wave of smoke and laughed. In response, Masaya’s face distorted. Karasu didn’t even look at the boy, just staring into the distance. Masaya felt scared of Karasu, shaking his head.
“Then rejoice, my younger brother. The greatest gambler in this whole world is going to teach you the rules.”
Karasu then didn’t waste a second to explain the rules of the game. His explanation was a bit easier to understand than Tobi trying to express himself, but at the same time, it felt cold and distant. It’s like the manual for a PC directly explaining how things work. After the general explanation ended, Karasu looked back at his laptop.
“Let me make an account for you. And you get to have all the funds first, Yodaka,” Karasu said and began hammering his fingers down on the keyboard.
English words and mathematical formulae appeared on the screen, mixing together to create something new.
“Also, Bro Karasu? I heard that the security system of Jack Pistols was pretty strong, eh? Just getting through the crack took a lot of effort, right?” Yodaka spoke up as Karasu let out a snort while still staring at the screen.
“That’s as easy as eating breakfast if you leave it to me.”
Karasu made it past the confirmation and showed the screen for the final registration on the screen, having Masaya sit down in front of it. Of course, he had no idea what to do about that. Instead, the girl wearing punk fashion—Botan—reached for the keyboard.
“I’ll give you a cute name instead!”
Botan typed in a name and was about to press the enter button, but Yodaka stopped her hand.
“Why are you trying to give him some fancy name? A casino is a battlefield. You need to give him a name that makes others shiver in fear and terror. For example something like…” Yodaka proceeded to type his own few words.
“…You have no sense at all, Yodaka.”
“Huuuh? It’s a lot better than just going with random cute names…”
Yodaka and Botan went back to arguing, but Masaya ignored them and pressed the enter button.
“““““Ah.”””””
Including Karasu, Tsubame, and even Tobi, everyone present let out a dumbfounded voice. They looked at each other and then turned toward Masaya.
“Are you…sure about that name?”
“Yeah. I like it,” he said with reddened cheeks.
And thus, Kurosaki Masaya received another name—The Robber Rabbit.
*
This was an episode that occurred way before Juri and Masaya snuck into Hinago Asami’s room… Even before Shinohara joined M&D… Even before Fukuro was killed… Even before Suzuran’s hatred for the Robber Rabbit reached its zenith… Even before the Robber Rabbit first showed himself in the cyber casino. This episode happened…the day after Fukuro saved the 12-year-old Kurosaki Masaya from Chan’s gambling ring.
Fukuro’s final disciple was not cut out to become an assassin, leaving the house a few days later. Shortly after, he was wrapped up in an incident with the mafia and ran into the son of the Kurosaki Family, but that is a story for another day. And finally, he met Suzuran—
CClaw Translations 