Liar, Liar - Volume 4 - Chapter 1.2

It was a little past ten PM on the third day of the May Interschool Competition. Now that we had a grasp on the situation, we needed to begin strategizing for MTCG.

“First, I think we could do with a little break, meow!”

““…A break?”” The abrupt suggestion prompted Saionji and me to raise our eyebrows.

“Yeah! A break! A chance to kick back and relax!”

We must have looked like we had no idea what she was talking about, because Kazami, who was looking more chipper than before, adjusted her cap and put her hands on a desk.

“The three of you have been working nonstop since the second half of the day ended, right? You haven’t even eaten or bathed yet! How’re we going to come up with any good ideas if you’re exhausted, huh?”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right…but we can’t go use the hotel’s bath facilities. We’d have to go up and back down in that container.”

“Non! I got some big news for ya! Heh-heh! It turns out the hotel has a public bath on the first floor and here on the basement level, too! No other Game participants are in there, making it perfect for talking about all kinds of secret stuff. So don’t worry! Go in there and warm yourselves up!”

“Oh…that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I guess we’ll take you up on that offer,” Saionji replied. She looked pleased at the idea.

“Good, meow!” Kazami had both hands on her hips, nodding in approval. Then she flashed a cheeky little smile. “By the wayyyyy… Unlike on the first floor, the basement bath isn’t divided by gender. It’s unisex!”

“…What? Wait, Lily. What did you just say?” Saionji asked.

“It’s unisex! Unisex! The Libra guys go in at different times than the girls, but we don’t have that much free time right now… So there’s only one solution, meow! I’ll lend you some bathing suits, so all three of you can go in at the same time!”

?! …?!??!

My expression didn’t change at this bombshell, but I wasn’t able to give a coherent reply, either. Just because we’d have swimsuits on made it okay for all of us to share a public bath? It was beyond reckless.

“Wha, wha, wha…?” Saionji took this worse than I did. Her face went bright red as she stammered. Eventually, she folded her arms and fired back with a frantic tone. “What are you talking about? Himeji and I going in together is one thing, but there’s no reason for Shinohara to join us. It’s only a quick little dip in the bath, right? We’ll just take tur—”

“…I’m afraid we can’t, Miss Sarasa.”

Surprisingly, it was Himeji who cut her off, not Kazami. Her silver hair swayed a little as she shook her head, her gaze pointed straight at Saionji.

“We can’t afford to turn down a golden opportunity like this. I will gladly wash both of your backs. Please come with us, Miss Sarasa.”

“Whoa! Wait, wait! I’m gonna see him naked! You’re okay with that?!”

“In a swimsuit, not naked. You allow the entire general male population of the island to see you at the beach in a bikini. I don’t see what the problem is.”

“You sound like you have a problem with that… It’s not like I rub my bikini in their faces or anything! I…guess it’s okay if he sees me in a swimsuit, but…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! C’mon, Sarasa, you gotta do your best! You gotta join your boyfri—”

“Sh-sh-sh-shut up, Lily!”

Saionji instantly tried to silence Kazami’s joking remark. She still looked apprehensive, but between Himeji’s approval and the fact that some girls from Libra were already choosing suits for us, she had no choice but to relent.

“Fiiiiine…,” she conceded in the softest voice possible.

And that settled it.

Guess I’m about to be dragged into a bath by a super-elite rich girl and my personal maid…

Honestly, it didn’t sound too bad on the surface.

“This feels good…”

My voice echoed through the large bath chamber.

The basement bath Kazami had guided us to was, unsurprisingly, a bit more cramped than the main one just outside the lobby, but it was still almost too big for three people. The bath itself was semicircular and set in a room with tiled walls. I wasn’t a powerful swimmer, but it felt like there was space for a breaststroke.

Himeji and Saionji were still changing. Since there was one bath, there was only the single locker room. There was no way we could share that simultaneously. Apparently, I was obligated to go in the bath first and leave last. That was the only way Saionji would agree to this. I guess I could understand why.

“Using a locker room with their stuff still in it…would’ve been difficult.”

Just imagining it brought heat to my face. I rubbed the space between my eyebrows with my palm.

“!”

I heard the door behind me slide open. Two sets of footsteps made little splashing sounds as they entered, teasing my ears. I unconsciously held my breath and quietly turned around.

“Wait! …Y-you can’t look yet.”

Saionji’s voice stopped me before I saw anything, though. Her voice was heavy with embarrassment. Honestly, it was almost cute.

“O-okay,” is about all I could say back as I locked my eyes in the opposite direction.

“Whew… My apologies, Master.”

Himeji sounded entirely unaffected. Maybe Saionji’s presence was helping her keep it together. That damp echo you hear when people talk in bathhouses made my pulse quicken.

“I tried talking things over with her in the locker room, but I’m afraid she’s too embarrassed to show herself to you in a swimsuit. She views the contextual meaning as different from hanging out at the beach,” Himeji explained.

“Erk… Well, I’m not wrong, am I? If we were at the beach, pool, or someplace where everyone’s expected to wear a suit, that’d be fine, but here in a public bath? It’s…weirdly p-perverted, somehow,” Saionji replied.

“So it wouldn’t be a problem if we were all naked?” Himeji countered. “That is quite a revelation, indeed. I will need to drum up some courage for tha—”

“That’s not what I meant! Ugh!” Saionji cut off Himeji as firmly as she could. Judging by her footsteps, I surmised she was going to use one of the shower booths by the bath before getting in.

“One moment, please,” Himeji said. Then I heard both of them moving away from me.

A moment later, the familiar, comfortable sound of two showers filled the room. That delicate splashing, the noise created by moving water buckets around, and all the other sounds the two of them made…were slithering into my ears.

What is happening? They’re just shower sounds. I’m staring at a blank wall. Why is my heart racing?

I tried to relax and act unaffected, but on the inside, I was in head-spinning agony. A strong-willed, slightly shy, perfect rich girl and my cool, docile, silver-haired maid… Two girls with looks rivaling any idol on TV were showering right behind me. I was sure they were both wearing swimsuits borrowed from Libra, but that was a trivial detail. My vision being restricted like this meant that my thoughts and ears were attuned to every sound.

This torturous limbo dragged on for some time before two sets of footsteps approached me again. I heard someone take a deep breath, but I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was Saionji or me.

“…Excuse me.”

I suppose I should have expected Himeji to enter first. Her foot made a gentle sound as it entered the water beside me. The rest of her body soon followed. When I say, “beside me,” I don’t mean that we were rubbing shoulders or anything, but we were close enough that I could’ve easily reached out and touched her if I wanted to.

Once Himeji was in up to her shoulders, she turned to me and gave a quick smile.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Master. Hee-hee! The water certainly is very comfortable.”

“! …Y-yeah. Yeah, it is. Yep.”

Her hair was damp, and her sleek shoulders were only barely visible beneath the water. The shoulder straps of her swimsuit were visible, although only just. Even though the water only allowed the haziest of contours, I could still tell the suit emphasized her chest. The sight of her was so perfect in so many ways that I couldn’t figure out what to say. Recently, I’d been thinking that my maid was too cute, and this was proof. The way she cupped both her hands to scoop up water… If someone painted this picture, I’m sure it would be worth millions.

“Umm…”

I was captivated by the sight of Himeji for a while, but soon realized it would be rude to stare at her, so I decided to make conversation.

“So, what’s up with Saionji? Is she not—”

“I’m over here…”

Before I could finish, a voice popped up behind me, a hesitant one that only made itself known after extended deliberation. Realizing it was safe to turn around now, I looked back.

“!! Oh…ah…”

The sight that greeted my eyes made me yelp instinctively. Saionji was there, crossing her arms over her chest like usual. Her peeved eyes were turned away from me, and I could tell that pretty much every inch of skin from the neck upward was a shade of red almost as vivid as her eyes and hair. Her folding her arms like that emphasized her breasts a little, and I couldn’t help but watch the droplets of water running down her collarbones. Her upper arms, usually covered by her school uniform, were bare for all to see, and honestly, the sight of them was pretty dangerous.

“Wh-what, Shinohara? Don’t just quietly sit there. Why don’t you actually say something?”

“Uh…you mean…like, ‘It looks good on you’ and stuff?”

“…You’re not even looking at my swimsuit.”

My agitation kept me from saying much of anything else. Himeji was one thing, but thinking of Saionji as captivating wounded my pride a bit. Ultimately, we exchanged glares at point-blank range, creating an endurance match to see who’d break down first.

“Um, Miss Sarasa…or should I say Rina? You are free to flirt with my master all you want, but you’re showing off far too much… I find it unfair.”

““!!””

Himeji’s somewhat pouting tone echoed through the room. Saionji and I quickly turned away from each other and sat bolt upright in the bath.

“You know…”

A little time had passed since we’d entered the bath. Saionji was still flushed around her cheeks, but she must have been getting at least a bit used to this, because she finally spoke up.

“What will you do once you make it back to ASTRAL? Assuming the rest of us hold out until then, that is.”

“Mm? Oh, well…”

I gave the question a light nod. I’d shared part of my plan with her, but we hadn’t been able to talk in detail about what I’d do after MTCG. I hadn’t told Himeji, either, and she looked at me expectantly. Her face was a little red, too.

“Well, Master, you seem confident you’ll win. Should we take that to mean things will be different once you do? We have Libra’s support now, but that seems to be the only difference so far.”

“Yeah,” Saionji agreed. “The Chameleon’s got thirteen players in her United Force, and Hell’s Priestess and Toya Kirigaya are among them. She’s got nearly three times the territory my team does. Having access to a little more data won’t change things much.”

Saionji lightly played with the water as she spoke. She and Himeji were right. Defeat looked inevitable. Neither Eimei nor any other school had the power to take down the Chameleon. If the Game continued along this trajectory, then ASTRAL was as good as over already.

“Try looking at it another way. For example…the United Force controls two thousand, two hundred and forty-five hexes right now, forty-eight point one percent of all territory in the Game, excluding the neutral spaces. That means the Chameleon’s got a little less territory than all the other schools combined, right?” I said.

Saionji cocked her head. “…? Well, mathematically speaking, yes. But so what?”

“We can’t win right now because we’re all fighting as separate groups. If all the remaining teams in ASTRAL banded together, we’d have more than enough strength to take on the Chameleon.”

“But that’s just hypothetical. I guess it might be possible if all the other teams worked together, but not even you could pull that off, Shinoha—”

“You really think I can’t?” I interrupted Saionji with a bold grin. Her doubts were entirely reasonable. Anyone who wasn’t a teammate in this Game was an enemy. Teams would usually never cooperate.

“Remember that the United Force skill the Chameleon uses absorbs the members of other teams into her own. And if she wins, all her allies will tie for second. Now that she’s taken in seven teams, if she wins, there’s no way anyone else will finish in the top five.”

“…Oh. I see what you mean.” Himeji bobbed her head as she grasped my point. “Any teams that haven’t joined the Chameleon need to take her down. Otherwise, they’re guaranteed to finish sixth or below and lose a star.”

“Right. And I think that’s more than enough motivation for people to start teaming up. But if we want everyone to band together, I think they’ll need an extra push. Someone will need to serve as their guide, a leader, I guess. If we unite a bunch of disparate teams, things will fall apart without someone to keep them together, right? I think Saionji’s the best person for the job, but I’m not sure if she’ll be able to convince everyone.”

“It would be tough to keep everyone together against an unprecedented dark-horse threat like the Chameleon,” Saionji agreed.

“Exactly. Our leader needs some kind of powerful backstory that inspires confidence and assures everyone they can face the Chameleon. They need to instantly bring all other teams to their side and win over the viewer polls. For example, a Commander from the last-place team who left ASTRAL only to claw his way back with a wild card.”

“That’s your plan, huh? I guess if you managed to do that, it would make you a big hero. Everybody loves a comeback story, after all,” Saionji remarked.

I grinned at her. “I’m glad you think so, too.”

Saionji clearly felt a bit more confident now after hearing my idea. Against an unusual mystery competitor, we needed something just as eye-catching. Merely being the strongest on the Academy likely wasn’t enough. However, adding a comeback element to the mix could be enough to tip things in my favor. When you factored in that it would be a massive comeback from last place, it genuinely started to feel possible.

“I need to build that kind of legend for myself over in MTCG.”

And to do that, we needed a firm strategy.

Once we finished with the bath, Himeji, Saionji, and I relaxed with some bento-box dinners Kazami provided. After that, it was time to hold our strategy conference for MTCG, the Multi-Trading Card Game.

“Okay, meow. There are several aspects to the MTCG Game,” Kazami said.

We sat among the many desks in the Control Section and focused on Kazami’s lecture.

“These include cards, quests, and coins…and some other things, too, but those three are the most important elements. Let’s start with cards. MTCG is played with cards numbered from one to nine. These form your hand, which is kept inside your device, and everyone starts with three ones. The sum of your number cards is also the level of your familiar.”

“…Familiar?” I asked.

“That’s right, meow! Each player in MTCG is given a preset familiar. We use AR to display them in the Game field. The type is random, so you won’t know what you get until you start playing, but their looks don’t have anything to do with their strength anyway. Basically, an MTCG player uses a familiar with strength equal to the sum of their number cards. We good so far?”

“Okay. So that familiar just adds some visual excitement, I guess.” Saionji nodded lightly, arms crossed as usual. Then she raised an eyebrow. “Then what? Is he supposed to raise that level as much as possible?”

“Well, don’t get too ahead of yourself, Sarasa. MTCG isn’t all about raising your level. And on that note, let’s move on to quests.”

Between knowing the rules and doing announcer and referee work for Libra, Kazami was in her element here.

“Quests are the main aspect of MTCG. There are five quest tiers, and players must beat them in order, starting with the first tier. Beat the last quest, and you’ve conquered the match and get a reward!”

I bobbed my head. “Uh-huh.”

“Now, all of these quests involve the same basic goal of beating an adversary who’s at level something or other. Find a player who’s at the specified level, beat them, and you’re done. There’s one catch, though. In MTCG, beating other players means having your familiar be the same level as your opponent’s, meow! That’s the most important thing to remember!”

“The same level? Being higher than the other player won’t work?” Saionji questioned.

Kazami nodded at her. “That’s right. You’re trying to match numbers, not beat them.”

Your familiar’s level was decided by your three number cards, and you had to match that total with those of the players you were trying to take down. I guessed that meant I needed to know how to raise that level.

“This is where upgrading and trading come in.”

Kazami had apparently sensed what I was thinking. She put a finger in the air as she continued.

“First, let’s talk about upgrades. There’s a command available on your device that lets you level up your number cards in exchange for coins. Upgrading a card from one to two costs five hundred coins, two to three costs a thousand, three to four costs two thousand, and so on. Also, you have to keep in mind that upgrading a card takes more than coins. It also requires time—ten minutes times the card’s value before the level-up, to be exact. For example, upgrading from two to three takes twenty minutes.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Next comes trading, meow! This one’s simple. You’re allowed to trade cards with other players. If you, Shinohara, trade your two for someone else’s three, that lets you essentially upgrade a card without having to wait twenty minutes!”

“All right… Oh? But what would the other side get out of that?”

“Nothing, if it were only that. That’s why you likely also need to pay additional coins to complete the trade. If you pay more coins than it would cost to upgrade, the other side might accept!”

“Oh, that sort of thing…?”

So we’d be paying coins to make up the difference in value between cards. Based on the previous example, upgrading from a two to a three would cost a thousand coins plus twenty minutes, so in a trade, maybe paying the other guy two thousand coins for a three would be enticing enough.

“And how do I obtain coins?” I asked.

“Well, you build them over time, earn them for winning battles…and you can also earn them in trades, like I said, meow! The last two are self-explanatory, and I guess building them over time is, too. The amount varies depending on how far you are with your quests, but basically, your coin count’s constantly increasing. You’ll never be completely broke, so don’t be shy about upgrading your cards like mad!”

“I see… So it’s that sort of system.” Himeji gave a satisfied nod.

Kazami answered with one of her own, then returned to her explanation.

“You’ll want to level up the cards in your hand, upgrade your familiar, and fight with it. This mainly involves finding an enemy who matches the level requirement of your current quest and matching it. However, there’s another aspect to this, too, meow! In MTCG, there are skill cards in addition to number cards. They’re single use, and players can carry up to five cards in total. Typically, you’ll have three numbers and two skill cards at all times.”

Kazami projected an image from her device. It showed the three types of skill cards in the Game and what they did.

Level Up: Boost your familiar’s level by one for this battle only.

Reward Up: Boost your reward for winning this battle by 10 percent.

Cancel Skill: Invalidate a skill card used by your opponent before battle.

“Hmm…”

Himeji was the first to speak after we read the list. “At what point in the Game would these cards be used, exactly?”

“Good question, meow! Battles in MTCG start with a card phase, then a showdown phase. During the card phase, the player who requested the battle goes first, selecting the card they want to use, and then their opponent does the same. Then the challenger plays one more card, so two in total. It’s challenger, opponent, then challenger again. Get it?”

“Hmm… And you have no idea what card your opponent’s playing?” I asked.

“Um, you can’t see the type, but you can tell whether they’re playing a skill card or not. You could do things like keep a Reward Up card on hand as a bluff, or play two Level Up cards at once to boost your familiar… That’s the real essence of MTCG!”

Kazami spun her index finger in the air as she happily chatted away. I’m pretty sure she was involved with the creation of this Game. She looked like she was thoroughly enjoying this.

“Once the card phase is over, it’s time for the showdown. If both levels are equal, the challenger wins! They’ll receive coins for their victory, and their quest tier will go up by one.”

“All right. So you get rewards up to the tier-five quest? Are all the rewards the same?”

“No sir, meow! All MTCG players are tasked with beating all five quest tiers, but each one has a few difficulty levels. There are three branches for every quest tier, and players must decide which they’ll take. Your prize is based on how difficult a route you completed. You could earn limited-edition Abilities or even Academy currency. Beating the most difficult route in the Game gets you the wild card.”

“Ahh…”

I sighed a little. The prize I was after waited at the end of the toughest route possible. That being the case, it was my only option. From start to finish, I’d be taking the toughest quests available.

“But, meow… But…” Kazami adjusted her cap and stared right into my eyes. “There’s a problem with the most challenging route… If you tackle it normally, it’ll take you at least two days, I think. Earning coins and upgrading cards takes time, so finishing the Game quickly is tough.”

“Two days? There’s no point to this, then,” I said. “We just finished the third day of ASTRAL. I don’t have two days to spend on MTCG.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true…but what else are you gonna do?” Kazami gave me a worried look.

I decided to stop talking and start thinking a little. The toughest route would take two days to complete, and that was if I hurried. I intended to leverage the Company’s support to the fullest, of course, but I had little hope I’d make it back to ASTRAL on time.

“Hey, Kazami… Libra is all about being neutral, right? You can’t cheat or play favorites with anyone or whatever, yeah?” I said.

“Hm? That’s correct, meow! I have a bad feeling about what you’re going to say next, but yes.”

“Do you think you could bend that just this once? Because honestly, I need to get that wild card no later than the end of the first half of tomorrow. The Game begins at nine in the morning, so basically my limit is twelve hours from now—three hours of gameplay, really. There’s no way I’ll make it on time if I play normally. I’m gonna need some system-driven interference, no matter what.”

“Ohh, but…”

“Please, Kazami. Look, it’s just a matter of how you think about it, right? The other side cheated first. Playing fair and losing for it will be horribly frustrating. I’d much rather do everything we can and worry about giving excuses later.”

“…”

Kazami thought for a bit while tugging at her armband. She seemed to reach a decision before too long, fixing me in her gaze and nodding.

“All right… Meow! I’ll explain things to the rest of Libra. Leave this to me!”

“Great. Thank you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Beating the hardest route possible in MTCG wasn’t going to be easy, but if I had Libra and the Company helping out, it was surely possible. I’d need to act prudently to keep other players from noticing all the cheating, but I’d grown accustomed to acting that way daily. It was normal for me.

“Hmm. Hang on.” A question floated through my mind. I looked up a little. “You said it’d normally take at least two days to beat the toughest route… That seems kind of strange. Today’s the third day of the May Interschool Competition, but nobody’s earned the wild card yet.”

“…Oh, right, I forgot to explain that.” Kazami frowned a bit, then shook her head. “To tell the truth…unlike other routes you can take in MTCG, you can’t clear the hardest one just by beating the fifth quest tier. There’s this final exhibition match… I guess you can think of it like a secret final boss. Anyway, there’s this Sixth Assassin you need to beat in the end.”

“Sixth Assassin? I’m guessing they aren’t a normal player.”

“Nope! Meow! They’re an external assistant for Libra. Technically, they’re still in middle school, but…”

“A middle school kid’s helping you out? Wait… Is her name Tsumugi Shiina?”

“Huh? How’d you know that, Shinohara?!”

“I thought so,” I muttered, shrugging as Kazami stared blankly at me. I explained my run-ins with Shiina, loosely anyway. We’d met, we’d spent time at the arcade, and she’d told me she was participating in MTCG to help out Libra.

“Hmm…”

Saionji gave me a dissatisfied look when I was finished.

“So you ran into a middle school girl in the hotel, in the middle of the night, and then you played around with her until morning, huh? Hmmmm…”

“Please don’t interpret things in the most evil way possible, Saionji.” I didn’t care what she thought, but if Himeji got the wrong idea about this, too, it wouldn’t be funny anymore. “Let’s stay focused on Shiina, okay? She’s the sister of a Libra member, isn’t she?”

“That’s what I heard,” Kazami replied. “There’s nobody with the last name Shiina on the Libra member list, though, so maybe there was a mix-up somewhere. It doesn’t really matter. Anyway, Tsumugi’s the Sixth Assassin. And her familiar’s level is all the way up at thirty!”

“Thirty? Wait. Don’t the individual number cards only go up to nine? If I upgraded all my cards to nine and coupled that with two Level Up skill cards, that’d still only add up to twenty-nine.”

“Hmm, yeah, that’s normally true. You’re going to need a special skill card to beat Tsumugi. There are one-time super skill cards that are unlocked with the tier-three quest. You’ll have to use one of them, called Limit Breaker, to turn all of your nine cards into tens. That means you’ll have to hold on to that special card until the end. But, um…there’s a problem.”

Worry entered Kazami’s expression for the first time during her high-energy rundown.

“So like I said…if you can keep that special card, you’ll be able to beat Tsumugi no problem. We suggest as much in the official rules we show all MTCG players, so I’m sure most of them have noticed that the fifth tier isn’t the end of the Game. But the three players who’ve completed the fifth tier on the hardest route so far have all lost to Tsumugi. One of them did keep a Limit Breaker for the battle with her, too!”

“…”

“I think it’s pretty clear something’s up with her, although we’re not sure what…” Kazami trailed off. Not even she could provide an answer. I worked out my own thoughts on this while watching her.

“Ooooooooh! I lost again!!”

It was presently one in the morning.

After wrapping up the strategy meeting down at the Libra office, I snuck into Shiina’s room to pay a visit. The night proceeded much like the last one I’d spent with Shiina. I brought her dinner, she challenged me to a fighting game, and the hours wore on as she did her best to keep me there for as long as possible. Nothing at all had changed from last night, except that I was beating her in the game more than before. It’s not like I was bullying her. Shiina seemed too distracted to focus.

“Ugh…”

“Hey, what’s up with you?” I asked, a bit exasperated, as I tossed my controller aside. “It’s been all bark and no bite for a while now, huh?”

“Fu-ha-ha-ha-ha! Uh-uh! That’s not true! I’m just having too much fun!”

“…Are you sure you’re not getting too carried away? We’re only playing a game. Has any of it really been that exciting?”

“Ha-ha-ha… No, it’s because of something else!”

Shiina laughed and kicked her legs as she lay back on the bed. She wiped tears from her eyes before using the momentum of her fall to bounce right back up. She clapped her hands and leaned toward me, heterochromous eyes gleaming.

“Listen! Guess what happened today at the event! It was such a blast!”

“The event? Oh, did something exciting happen during MTCG? But that was during the evening, right? You’re still amped up about it?”

“It was just sooooo fun! You know that I’m a denizen of darkness, so you could say I only live for battle. Also, having you bring me food makes me reeeeeaaally happy, too!”

“Oh… Well, great.”

I shook my head lightly at what seemed like an honest expression of gratitude. That’s when I chose to broach the important subject, motivated partly by my creeping fatigue.

“Hey, Shiina, I heard you’re some kind of last boss in MTCG.”

“Yeah, that’s right! If this were an RPG, I’d show up after you beat the demonic overlord and be all like ‘Mwah-ha-ha-ha! That one was merely the weakest among my minions!’ And stuff!”

“A demonic overlord’s just a minion to you?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? I’m the Dark Defiler of God! Heh-heh!”

Snickering, she picked up Lloyd the Cerberus plush and struck a pose. Then she quickly returned to her usual innocent demeanor and gave me a puzzled look.

“Hey… What’s going on? Why’d you suddenly bring up MTCG?”

“Oh, I’m joining it, so I thought I’d ask.”

“Huh? But don’t you have ASTRAL? Wait, did you get kicked out?! When?!”

“This afternoon. Why do you sound so surprised?”

“W-well, yeah, I mean… Wow. Really? That’s what happened? That’s kind of a pity. Or…maybe not? Hmmmm…”

Shiina muttered to herself for a bit. She seemed more interested in my joining MTCG than in my elimination from ASTRAL. She quietly stared at me with her mismatched eyes.

“Hey, um, you’re really strong, so you might beat your fifth quest in MTCG really fast…but you’ll never beat me, okay? No matter how good you are, I’m never gonna let you win. I like playing with you a lot, but this is different!”

“Oh yeah? You sound pretty confident.”

“Of course!”

She flopped onto the bed, hugging the Cerberus plush tightly. With her eyes narrowed like a happy cat’s, she said something that struck me as rather important.

“Heh-heh! I’m invincible.”