Disclaimer: I don't own Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and don't make profit from the fic.
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Russian roulette
Haruhi entered the room exactly when Kyon needed two more moves to kick Koizumi's ass in checkers for the thirteenth time.
"Brigade!" she called, slamming the door shut. "I have a mission for us!"
Nagato turned a page of her new book, Mikuru pressed the tea tray to her ample breast and Koizumi turned to the recently arrived with a smile even more sunny than usual. "What is it?" he asked happily.
Kyon had a sudden foreboding.
"We'll play the Russian roulette!"
...he was quite right with the foreboding. An uneasy hush fell over the room. Haruhi, maybe having taken the silence for an agreement (or, more likely, not caring about her subordinates' opinion), pulled a big carton box from behind the wardrobe and placed it on the table with a groan, shoving the boys' unfinished checkers to the floor. Kyon was too distracted with his conscience examination to care about the scattered pieces. Yuki raised her head from her book for the occasion.
The brigade breathed with relief when their chief pulled a roulette wheel and a pack of chips out of the box. Kyon looked at it closely and sure enough, near the bar code were the magical words: "Made in Russia".
"Why do you want to play this?" he inquired, because the sense of foreboding hasn't completely disappeared.
"We don't have any clients, so we have to kill time somehow. The loser will be the winner's slave for a week!"
Out of the corner of his eye Kyon saw that Mikuru started trembling. He sighed heavily and held back the comment that Suzumiya treated all brigade members like slaves, anyway.
"I'm not playing," he announced and got up from the table. Asahina uttered some confirming moan and rushed after him. However, they didn't even manage to get to the door before Haruhi spoke again.
"Whoever runs away from the game will be my slave for a month!"
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After a few rounds Kyon figured that something was very wrong.
Mikuru played very cautiously, betted only on colors and usually won, which left her with more or less the amount of chips they had started with. The same with Nagato, who looked more interested in mentally calculating the probability of winning for each player than in her own victory. Kyon thought he played safe, as well, but by some strange luck (or lack thereof) he didn't manage to win even once, which was why he was far behind the rest of the players. That didn't bode well for his immediate future...
Especially since the race for the first place was playing out between the brigade chief and her vice-president. Haruhi slammed her chips onto her number with an expression of determination on her face. Koizumi placed his bet much more calmly and fixed his eyes on the wheel, which was set in motion by Yuki, delegated to the role as the most impartial (as much as possible, anyway) of the players. Kyon eyed the other boy suspiciously. His schoolmate gaze was focused on the ball and when it fell into the pocket numbered 8, a very unsettling smile blossomed on his face.
Kyon leaned towards him and, unnoticed in the commotion caused by Haruhi counting her chips, hissed: "I thought you can't use your powers in normal space?"
"I said that?" the esper replied innocently, arranging his gains in a neat pile. "I may have slightly misrepresented the truth."
Through the next rounds Kyon observed with rising despair as his reserve of chips shrank while Haruhi's and Itsuki's piles rose at an allarming rate. He was hard-pressed to decide which eventuality was worse. Finally it was time for the last round - the 'house' was running out of chips to pay. Kyon nearly wept over the hopelessness of his position.
The ball stopped at the black thirteen. Haruhi slammed her fist into the table, rose abruptly, commanded: "Mikuru-chan! Come!" and marched out of the room. Asahina squeaked, sent an apologetic look at Kyon and ran after Suzumiya. After a moment Nagato nodded her head, took her book and left the scene of the crime, so to speak.
"You know," Itsuki said, smiling sweetly. "There's no such thing as coincidence, there's only hitsuzen... and the Agency."
Kyon honestly wanted to go back in time and tell Haruhi what the Russian roulette was really about.
TEH END
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hitsuzen - the inevitable, fate