Shovels In Spades

"Oh my." Ran Hamilio opened her eyes widely. "It sounds like you were expecting me."

Rose gave the young-looking Korean woman a long, hard stare before she sighed. "You suck at acting. You know damned well about my esper ability. It's obvious that I was aware you were here. Don't play stupid with me."

Ran chuckled softly as she covered her mouth. "Such a dirty mouth for such a pretty young girl."

"Daz would get along with you great," Rose sarcastically spat out.

"Oh, would he? I'd love to meet my grandson. It's a shame the feeling isn't mutual," Ran claimed with a sad look on her face.

"Like you actually care." Rose took another sip from her coke and yawned lightly before saying, "I see you changed your name back to Ho Ran, huh? I wonder how grandad would react if he found out?"

Ran's facial expression cracked slightly. Seeing this, a smirk grew on Rose's face. "Oh, that's right. You thought he was dead, huh? Shame. He's very much so alive, no thanks to you."

"... What do you want?" Ran asked with ice in her tone.

Rose fake-shivered. "How scary." She gave her grandmother a contemptuous look before stating her terms. "Things are going to go one of three ways. One, you refuse me here and I decide to get in contact with Lorenzo. Two, you refuse me and I don't get in contact with Lorenzo. Instead, you get crushed under Daz's foot when the time comes. Three, you don't refuse me."

Sweat dripped down the youthful-yet-wizened woman's face. "... What do you want?" Ran repeated herself.

Rose grinned. "When the time comes, join Daz. He will protect you from Lorenzo and Davido."

"You think he has to ability to do so?" Ran asked with both doubt and hope in her tone.

Rose scoffed dismissively. "Accept, or decline. The only person who has a different outcome in any of the three scenarios is you, Ho Ran. It's all the same to Daz in the end."

"Four of a kind," Daz said as he showed his four kings.

The only other person who was still in this round of Texas Hold'em grabbed his head and had a defeated look on his face. He flipped over his cards. "Me too, but only queens. Fuck. You didn't even once look at your cards! How'd you do that? What skill did you use? You can't be that lucky."

Everyone surrounding the table nodded in agreement. Daz had won sixty games at this point. Some he had won with only two pairs, others with a full house. Once he won with a royal flush, but most of the time it was a three or a four of a kind that had led him to victory.

The biggest reason everyone wanted to know Daz's secret, was that he never once looked at his cards. The few people that had tried to identify him were rejected since they were too weak, so it was a mystery how he was winning.

Daz smirked. "I have good instincts. Call it luck if you want to. I had a lot of fun though. Anyone up for another round, or have I tired you all out?"

A few exhausted laughs rang out around the table.

"I'm done. I need to save the rest of my points for an easy challenge or two."

"Me too."

"I was only watching from the start."

"I'd go another round or two, but I've emptied my pockets on that last one."

"Man, I really wanna know how you did that. That was insane."

"Instincts, huh? Well, remember to invite me to your base. My name's Johnny Fresco."

"I'm Sakura Rei! Make sure you invite me too!"

"I already have a good home, but yeah, I hope we meet again someday. I've gotta go find my friends now. They keep texting me."

Daz smiled warmly. The atmosphere was nice when all of the negative people had finally left him alone. "Don't worry. I remember everyone's names. I'm heading over to the blackjack high stakes tables now to find Maddy. Feel free to come along if you wanna watch her win just as crazily as I did."

The crowd of maybe thirty people spoke amongst themselves as they followed Daz through the casino or split off to do their own things.

Madison had tried the regular low stakes blackjack tables, but it was hard for her to win consistently due to the rules like splitting and instant pay-out upon drawing a twenty-one. As a consequence, she had opted to go to a simplified high stakes blackjack table.

The rules were very easy to follow, to play, and most importantly, to win with. Each player got given a card face up. After that, they could choose to hit or stay, however, every time they hit, the new cards given to them would be given face down. It was up to the player to decide when to stop.

The dealer robot got a card for every time all of the players in the round hit. If the dealer was the closest to twenty-one without going bust or if all of the players went bust, then all bet merit points would be added to the pot for the next round.

"Hit," Madison said.

One of the two men at the table smiled handsomely. "Hit, and a drink for the lovely young lady."

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The second man clicked his tongue. "I'll hit too."

The dealer android nodded and gave another face-down card to the three of them then one to itself, totalling four cards for everyone now. Quite a large number, in all honesty.

A waiter robot approached Madison and handed her an alcoholic cocktail of some sort. No doubt, its specifications had been decided by the good-looking man to her right.

Madison brought the drink to her nose and then frowned. She placed the glass in front of the man who'd ordered it. Clearly, she had no interest in it. The man on her left snickered as he swept back his hair.

"Hit," Madison said, not minding the two men.

The man on the right's smile faltered slightly, but he still maintained it as he said, "I'll stay. Anymore with my face-up being a six is a bit risky."

The man on the left said, "Coward. I'll hit." He sneered at the other man. 'Obviously, she's into risk-takers, you bum. Any old idiot could order her a drink. This is why you're an amateur, and I'm a pro.'

The dealer gave another face-down card to Madison, the man on the left, then itself. It then flipped over the right man's cards, revealing a seven, an ace and an eight, giving him a minimum total of twenty-two. "You have gone bust. Your bet of twenty-five thousand merit points has been added to the pot. Thank you for playing."

The man sighed before he held his chin in his hands and just gazed at Madison while he blanked the other man. "You win some, you lose some. Now that I've lost, it's almost time for me to win."

Madison didn't humour him with a response. "Stay."

The man on the left copied her. "Stay."

And so, the robot flipped over all of the cards. Its total was twenty-six, the man's was thirty-two, while Madison's was exactly twenty-one.

"Congratulations, you have won the pot of seventy-five thousand merit points," the android said to Madison as it began picking up the cards. It looked at the man on the left briefly and stated, "You have gone bust. I wish you luck in the next round."

Madison summoned her merit points via her mind to view her total amount. She was finished, after all. She was missing Daz and wanted to see him again. There was also the fact that she was running low on esper energy. Her power, 'Alteration', unlike Daz's Survivor's Instinct, wasn't passive nor was it free of cost.