Caution: Oh yes... there's a slightly bad-mouting miko ahead.
The crowd around them was big and noisy for their taste. Every time someone revealed their cards whistles, gasp and other annoying noises could be heard.
It was obvious that some of the players there where hot that night and nobody wanted to miss the chance to see the spectacle or to learn about their new rivals...
"Ladies, gentlemen, ready for the next game?" asked the winner of the round with a smile after taking his prize to his side. This one was a young average male human with brown hair, an elegant gray suit and round glasses with a cup of Moon Sake on his left.
Everybody but two human and one youkai agreed for a new round with grunts, cocky grins and hand signals.
Now only five souls remained in that poker table.
"Excuse me, pardon me, out! Rabbit in a chase; sorry, I'm in a hurry!" Reisen was muttering apology after apology while dodging people or animals. One moment she was relaxed in her free night at the Security Room and in the next she was racing around the Casino like a mad woman.
And just because of a strange thing she saw on the Craps Corner while checking the screens of the security video cameras. All what she could see about the ruckus there was the figure of her friend Tewi standing on the bar of the mini bar. And Reisen knows that that didn't mean any good.
She passed next to the Poker main room and saw a great mass of people around the central table. Figuring that there was an incredible hot game now, she thanked the lunar princesses her way wasn't near the sea of people and continued running.
After a minute or so she arrived to the doors of the club and, while catching her breath and holding her still burning legs, said "Eyah… I… did... it... in... record… time… good…"
"Just… a… moment *pant*and... I'm... in..." wheezed Reisen. Of course, going since the fifth floor to the second floor is tiring when walking, but when running?
Two fully minutes later and she was fully recovered and ready to kick asses… figurative speaking, but at least she wasn't panting anymore.
Opening the big and heavy occidental-style green doors of the club (after dusting off her hair, skirt and jacket) she immediately was greeted by at least twenty humans and some youkai yelling and running at her trying to get out of the room.
"Wha-?" somehow managed to say the rabbit girl in her out-of-cold state with literally blank eyes. She looked at the panicked stampede a little longer and get out of their way just in time by jumping to one side, saving herself for a very painful collective tackle.
"That… wasn't normal." she said a little shocked looking at the still running mass wreaking a havoc around on their way out of the casino, then she sighed and stretched her back while saying "What did she did now?"
Entering the room she saw lots of rabbits scattered around. Some on the craps tables, others on the comfy black sofas and their matching elegant black tables, even two where in the stationary central wood ceiling fan, but most of all where covering almost the entire marble floor.
Their presence didn't concern her too much; true the rabbits could become a nuisance to the players, but were completely inoffensive. The only rabbit that would cause such ballyhoo would be their leader and that was…
They decided to sit in a star-shaped way so they would have enough space for themselves and a good angle to see the others. The last winner was in the upper point.
One of the females positioned opposite the man, a young woman in her mid-teens with slightly small breast, brown short hair and eyes wearing a red and white shrine maiden's modified outfit with a yellow neckerchief and white detached sleeves, and a red ribbon in the head spoke while distributing face-down cards to each player, a yellow piece of plastic with a red "D" on it next to her cards "I'm the dealer. Start putting the blinds."
The other female at the left of the Dealer putted her bet of one Lucky Coin in the center pot. This one was in her mid-teens too, but her hair was green and long with a snake-shaped accessory wrapped around her hair in one side and had a frog's head hair clip too. Has deep green eyes.
She was wearing a white tight elegant dress with a V-neck; it had short sleeves with a green lace in the hips showing her good figure, the bottom of it was decorated with a green windy pattern and was using white and aquamarine heels to match. The dress was causing gossip around. Of course since Gensokyo was oblivious of the Outside World's new fashion said simple but cute cloth attracted attention.
Next to her, a… rabbit tossed two Lucky Coins.
Looking briefly at his cards with an unclear face, an old man with white long bread, a blue shirt and light brown pants took a sip of his own Moon Sake and he picked two Lucky Coins of his own saying "I call."
"Well I raise." said confidentially the young male adding to the pot four Lucky Coins with a huge grin in his face looking at the Dealer. "I hope you still have money left, ma'am."
"Of course I have chips!" spat the shrine maiden taking four coins from inside one of her sleeves after seeing her own cards.
Just when she finished giving the smiling man a final dirty look while putting the coins, she looked at the green haired girl still looking at her cards and said "Your action, bimbo."
Like a slap in the face, the other girl snapped from her little bubble and angry exclaimed "Oi! Reimu, even with your strange competitiveness that was uncalled for."
"Jeez, all right, sorry Sanae, chill out. Damn." said the brown haired one after hearing a chuckle from the rabbit and the man with glasses.
With a satisfied "hump" Sanae called too and while adding other three Lucky Coins at the middle she mustered under her breath "Stupid crazy flat-chested miko. So addicted to the games already..."
The rabbit happily tossed other two coins to match bets. At this point the pot was rejoicing with eighteen coins.
Now that everybody had bet, the real game was about to start.
"TEWI!" yelled Reisen looking for signals of the alluded around while stepping in the free floor parts of rabbits. "Show yourself in this instant!"
After five full seconds without a response that wasn't the chuckles of the rabbits, she decided to try with a little more authority.
"Now!" was the roar of the long haired girl. It echoed around the room making the two rabbits in the fan ceiling fell from it.
…Still without answer. The blood in her veins was starting to boil.
The always calm and somewhat loose moon rabbit was starting to lose her temper. If princess Kaguya or worse… master Eirin discovered this mess, all responsibility was going to fall over her shoulders while the real culprit, the earth youkai rabbit, walks out of all scolding as always; and if that were to happen, then she would have to work more at the casino as punishment and she was sick of having to act like the main attraction of the waitress team…
"Oh, shut up Reisen!" the voice of said earth rabbit was heard at last in the room, but this time it carried a bratty accent on it… "Lemme' alone already."
Tracking the sound waves of the voice, the mature one let a sigh and got near the mini bar while asking "Where you drinking more than what you should again?"
"No!" cried the one behind it still with that weird accent. "I'm the Great and Powerful Tewi and I don't get drunk, you fool."
"Don't be so thick and accept it, you have a limit too… and you reached it." said the moon rabbit now leaning on the bar with a smile and closed eyes. "Did the hangover made you scare the gamblers from here?"
A pinkish blur came from behind the bar towards one of the craps tables and landed on it.
"I said no! Those amateurs got scared of my greatness and escaped of it" said Tewi pointing the ceiling with one hand, the other in her hips and eyes closed. "they now know who the boss here is."
"Have you been playing?" asked surprised Reisen still against the bar and said "You know we, the staff, can't play in the casino with the costumers."
Angry, the lucky rabbit was now pointing at the lunar rabbit accusingly and snarled "Who says so?"
"Master Eirin ordered it and the princess agreed with her" said casually Reisen while waving her hand and added "and what's with that accent? It sounds weird coming from you."
The child-like rabbit looked at her fingernails as an idea struck her drowsy brain.
"Then I quit." flatly said Tewi.
Reimu slowly placed three face-up cards in the center of the table. Those were a Two of Diamonds a Three of Hearts and a King of Spades.
"Hmmm… I'm cold tonight." said the old man taking a final sip of his beverage and folded his arms with his faced-down cards on the table and retreated, still with that unreadable face of his while walking out of there.
One down, two left.
"I check." the girl in black mumbled more interested in looking at the three cards with a stern face as if they were about to come alive and bite her in the face if not paying attention.
The little bunny raised the bet tossing eight Lucky Coins on the pot as if they were nothing to the dismay of certain brunette.
"Little fucker playing like a maniac. I'm going to cook you in a stew…" whispered Reimu while breathing hard and looked at her not-so-big mount of chips with tears in her eyes and added "… after cutting your legs!"
"What's the matter, Miss Reimu? Having problems on keeping yourself with the game?" said in a mock the man adding his own eight chips; his cards just the way Reimu left them.
"At least I know with what I'm playing." said the poor girl with her heart on her throat and a sour face, then she added eight coins too only to see her female companion matching the bets with her coins.
Those were the times she remembered why she disliked so much almost all the boys in the village.
All were very proud of themselves but in reality they only where idiots with an ego of a Yukari and the courage of a little child lost in the woods at night in the middle of a storm while a vile night sparrow was watchi-rapidly, she shook her head and focused again in the game ignoring the sound of flashes around or the strange face Sanae was giving her.
With a groan she indicated she was fine. Obviously she made funny faces while thinking.
Damn it!
The long haired rabbit looked seriously at her friend and said "Excuse me? What did you said?"
"You should clean your ears cow-rabbit, 'cause you're a little deaf today" said Tewi grinning a toothy grin "what I said is that I quit."
"You cannot quit!"
"Yes I can and I did it~"
"The princess will not allow it."
"Who cares about what she says-"
"That's the sake speaking!"
"-she's so happy with the casino to care about what we do."
On a moment while arguing, Tewi had jumped from the table and Reisen had walked to the center of the room ignoring the oblivious rabbits. Now the two where in front of each other and were in a competition of sharp eye-to-eye looks.
"Careful with what you say, Inaba." said Reisen, one of the things that she learned in her training on the moon was to always have the mind and tongue under control. "Mouthing people like that just because of a tantrum is not a favorable excuse… even if you are drunk."
The child-like rabbit laughed at the comment and in a mocking voice said "Look who's speaking Miss Real-Power-of-Eientei!"
It hit like a brick. The moon rabbit blushed and immediately lost her words while looking to one side. Her chances of making Tewi apologise heavily dropped to almost none.
"Hehe, now you shut up, right? And I told you already. I'm. not. drunk." said the earth rabbit youkai and from inside her nightgown took a bottle of sake and took a drink of it and said "See? Not even a little."
After a pause, Reisen looked again at her friend and with a thin voice said "Are you doing this only because of that rule? You know we can always talk to them about it."
"Not anymore Udongein. Now that I think about it, Kaguya and Eirin have been a pain in the neck since the last months." Tewi grinned and hid her bottle in her nightgown again just as Reisens senses kicked on and giggled "I think I'm takng some vacations."
As Reimu folded the new card, a Four of Clubs (and started smiling like a baby) Sanae looked around the crowd. Worry was plausible in her young features as she whispered to herself "For the love of… where are they? They promised to stay close."
She tried to use her magic to at least feel them but when concentrating, something else decided to interrupt…
"Ehem, Kochiya…" hissed Reimu with a renovated spark of hope in her eyes "are you going to play or not?"
"Uh…ah…" mumbled the green eyed girl as if thinking something deeply until she cleared her throat, looked at the other players and said clearly in a rush "No, some issues appeared. I'm out."
And with that, Sanae took her remaining coins, stepped up from her place and hurried to open herself a way out of the massive sea of people around the still-in-gamming table.
Two down, two left.
Reimu took the opportunity to peek in Sanae's cards and whispered "A Seven of Clubs and a Seven of Diamonds… uhuhu~"
The rabbit, still with the same expression as the one at the beginning, decided to check signaling it with a soft blow in the table with its paw.
"Wah, hah, hah... you should look and follow the example of your friend, Hakurei" taunted the man accommodating his glasses with a cocky grin. "Why don't you go now and save yourself from a more serious problem of extreme poverty? That would be wise."
"Just make your bet." said the unaffected girl with a smile, winking while responding "And stop being so chatty, your voice hurts my eardrums."
With an animalistic growl he checked too.
The mature rabbit was expecting something better like revenge or war, not only some "vacations". It was very obvious to guess her confusion and surprise thanks to her face.
"Uh… vacations you say?" mumbled Reisen.
"Of course!" said Tewi and folded her arms while nodding. "I am tired to death of working and I'm sure my friends here need a vacation too."
The chorus of agreements and excuses of obviously false illness and other things echoed in the room for six seconds. Enough time for Reisen to think about it.
True that since the princess ordered the construction of the casino they (she) had been working harder than any other Moon Festival or Moon Capital Exhibition ever, and after finish the project with the furniture included they (she) didn't have any chance of a break because the princess ordered to made propaganda to attract customers and then, after doing the path on the bamboo, hire people and widespread the casino they (she) started working in there as waiters (waitress) security and sometimes even the banker if needed…
Thinking of it, they all needed some vacations, with all that work it was a miracle they (she) still have energy. One or two weeks would do. Yes.
With a smile on her face she said "all right Tewi, you're right. Let me go and talk with master and the princess about the vacations."
"Cool! Whit this break I'm going to play against those idiots until I'm better than that Anderson-human." commented the earth rabbit, her anger long forgotten.
As Tewi was talking, Reisen was lost in her mind thinking "…Maybe relax at the mansion or even visit Reisen, lady Yorohime and Toyohime and invite them to the casino… great…"
"Tewi Inaba sounds boring… hey! You should all call me something like Capitan or else!" with that babbling it was obvious that said lucky rabbit youkai girl was drunk.
Quickly snapping of her daydream Reisen ran out of the room saying "Yes, yes Coach, whatever you say!"
Her next destination: the fourth floor.
"Does she know that when I said vacations I was meanning in our vacations without her, right?" said the child-like bunny girl to one of the rabbits in the floor while seeing the lunar rabbit running to the stairs and quickly adds "Coach… hmm... I like it!"
Inside, Reimu was crying happily and, with a serious mask outside, she checked too.
With a swift movement she revealed the last card, a Queen of Clubs and smiled while looking down at her hand.
"IT CAN'T BE!" yelled the man startling the crowd and making the other two players look at him. "NO!"
"What's wrong with you?" asked the brunet. "did you saw yourself in the mirror at last or what?"
"GRRR… I... I quit." he growled loudly and tossed back his cards, revealing to be a Two of Hearts and a Seven of Diamonds.
"Don't tell me you got drowned?" taunted the shrine maiden vilely. She wasn't even a little sorry for teasing the man after his demise.
Tossing his precious cup of sake, the man yelled while standing up "Shut your mouth!"
Three gone, one left.
Reimus smile widened ear-to-ear. Without that brat, her extreme good luck and not-so-bad hand she was about to win fifty chips… or more if that little rascal decided to continue playing.
Only a miracle would convert her win in a defeat.
Arriving as fast as she could to the fourth floor, Reisen stops her running in front of the black elegant heavy doors to catch her breath. While on it, she repeats her mental plan to remember it well and to detect possible flaws.
"All right" she breathes softly and proceeds to say "I open one of the doors without disturbing anyone. Walk to her and wait if she's busy. After she wins I ask her about her gaming today and when she finishes I mention her the vacations. Right, easy. That's easy. Even three days would be a blessing, yes."
It wasn't clear if the sweating in her forehead was for the run or for the nervousness the girl had. Whatever was the cause she used her left sleeve to clean it.
As she was about to grab the knob of the door she retracted her hand and thinks "And what if she refuses? Is she going to be mad at me? What if she didn't win or that her night wasn't so good?"
She slapped herself softly in the check and chuckled, then happily said "Of course not. It's my master from who I'm talking about. I'm sure she's having a wonderful night, I'm just being paranoid."
Again she tried to grab the knob but hesitated again.
"C'mon Reisen" she said grabbing the silver knob of the door with force. "you can do it!"
The door opened and the fresh air of the conditioned air enveloped her.
With a smile on her face and a new pack of courage (or adrenaline) in her veins she stepped in.
The rabbit looked very amused by the display the man did when getting out of the room and, after a light chuckle, it tossed sixteen coins more.
Still with that smile, the shrine maiden says "Ohoho, not backing off, I like it." and proceeded to add her last sixteen Lucky Coins; you almost could see sparks flying in from her eyes.
They locked sight for brief seconds after the little rabbit started to scratch its head with one of its back paws.
"Well well, little bunny, it's just the two of us then…" said Reimu revealing her still faced-down two cards: a Queen of Diamonds and a Queen of Spades.
"Gotcha! no way fluffy-tail can surpass this." she thought hearing more gasps of people around them. She grinned again and softly said "Would you be so kind showing your hand?"
As if wanting to hear the command, the little rabbit took its first card and showed it, making Reimu almost get choked with her own saliva for the surprise. It was a King of Clubs.
With her mouth fully open, she started thinking "How is it possible? … it wasn't playing maniac… it… it was…." she watches as her newly detected (and detested) rival shows its last card: a King of Diamonds.
"It was fooling it…." she whispers as the chorus of shrieks and flashes washed them both, and she sees how the hated animal took the pot of eighty two Lucky Coins.
"Aren't you going to reconsider it, master?" asked Reisen, pleading.
The answer was simple.
"No."
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places in the story, Team Shanghai Alice is the owner of all.
The only thing that is mine is the Houraisan Love Love Bunny Casino.
Hey there!
I know... poor Reimu almost won that game *sigh* hopeful she's not going to break havoc because of that… (^^;
As I promised here's the action I was talking about. If that wasn't in your mind then sorry, I may put gangsters but not now.
Hold up your torches Poker players! I'm pretty sure I messed badly with the cards but I didn't knew anything about Texas Hold'em until not so long. Anyway… I updated fast I know, but inspiration was on me and I didn't wanted to let it go. Still, I have the schemes for the next chapter but I'm not sure when it'll be ready. My hopes are until next week.
Oook it's raining… better finish this before a thunder does…
Hopeful you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Edit: I really was right with the cards, heh. Well I think this is new change less confusing...
Reviews are very welcome.