Author's Note: Yes, you know what time of the year it is! It's almost Christmas~ One of my favorite holidays! Geez, how do I describe it? Christmas is fun, family, no school work, food and—most exciting of all, presents. Hahahaha, I know… I sound like a kid, don't I?

Well so much for all that, another update of course is coming your way, dear readers. And I am so happy and thankful that all of you still haven't abandoned this work and that you continued to support this.

Again, thank very much!

ranchan-akari: Oh no, my dear, Souma wasn't cheating at all! He was simply taking opportunity to snag wins! You see, the game doesn't necessarily tell you to not lie about anything, it just tells you to discard the number of cards in your hand.

A short summary on the game Cheat (but seriously, I prefer the name Bullshit because, well, it just gives you a good reason to shout expletives without making it sound too obscene. Whoops~)

The aim is to get rid of all your cards by playing them to a discard pile. After having the cards distributed evenly to each player, the game begins. You basically discard the cards by calling out their name and rank (i.e. first player calls out Aces, second player calls out Twos, third player calls out Threes, so on.), placing them face down on the pile. If you don't have a card that will follow the ranking, then you can easily lie about it as to avoid a penalty of getting all of the cards in the pile. Since cards are played face down, it gives players the option to lie about the cards they are playing, but if the lie is exposed they must pick up the pile.

So, since that is how the game is played…We could say that Souma didn't cheat. He just said that "he wouldn't do anything otherwise," meaning anything that was not in the rules. People do tend to misunderstand things like that, don't they?

MichaelThao24: Hope the summary up there was able to explain what had just happened. Thank you very much for the review, by the way!

ThePlotbunnyBreeder: Oh my, well, I'd say that Souma was just very cunning, that's all~

Ananonodish: I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter! Thank you very much, I will be needing the luck.

KakeruPB: Hahahaha, for once I'm actually glad to say that I got you and that you almost took the bait. Normally I would go, "I'm sorry I had to do that," and stuff but yeah, seeing that you had fun made my day!

Anyway, moving on! Chapter 9, coming up!


Moment 9: Desire

Souma groaned. For what seemed like the eighth time in fifteen minutes, he had gotten the same stupid result over and over again. He stared at the ball in his hands, waiting for the message to float up.

No.

"Ugh," Souma moaned in disgust. He turned to Isami, who wore a smile on his face. "Hey, Isami, are you sure this thing's not broken? I've been getting the same answer for about eight times now."

"Maybe you've been asking it the same question over and over again," the boy replied with a knowing tone. "The Ball can sense whether you're trying a bit too hard or not, you know."

"How do you know that I've been asking the same question over and over? I didn't even say anything."

"Oh I don't know. I have a good guess. In fact, I would even bet that you kept asking about whether or not you would beat Hayama-san sooner or later."

Souma gave him a cold look. "Whatever."

Isami snorted. "What a sore loser. The ball knows that you won't beat him today. Leave it at that already. If I were to say something, it would sound like you're hurting the ball's feelings since you don't believe in what it says."

Souma eyed the object in his palm glaringly. "You mean this plastic junk? If I were to think about it, this thing's a waste of yen." He placed it down on the kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "Face it, you've got ripped off."

Isami turned to the red head with a smile, his blue eyes doing all the smirking for him. "We'll see about that." He picked up the ball and brought it close to him. "Alright then. Magic Eight Ball, will Brother treat me to a strawberry rainbow parfait in the café downtown tomorrow?" With a good grip, he shook the ball a couple of times as Souma looked at him. The answer floated to the surface.

Yes.

"Yay, Brother's going to give me a treat tomorrow!" Isami cheered. "How lucky!"

"That was a lucky shot!" Souma cried. "Try again!" Really, he didn't learn, did he?

"Okay then." Isami turned to the Magic Eight Ball again. "Magic Eight Ball, will Brother treat me to a strawberry rainbow parfait in the café downtown tomorrow?" he repeated. For the second time, he gave the ball a good shake. Again, the answer floated to the surface.

Without a doubt.

"Alright! I'm so hyped for tomorrow!" Isami's statement earned another frustrated growl from the red head.

"This thing's rigged!"

"No, it's not~"

"How could it not be?! You asked the same question twice! And it gave you the same positive answer!"

"Didn't the same thing happen to you? You know, when you kept asking and it kept on giving negative answers?"

"Don't brag about it, and stop making fun of me!"

"Maybe I'm just lucky, that's all. Among the two of us brothers, I am the more blessed one. Just look at my height, my looks and my calm disposition," Isami said with a smile.

"Yeah, that's kinda true," Souma said with a thoughtful look. "I mean, you are a lot taller than he is—" Souma felt a vein pop on the side of his head. "Wait, why am I even agreeing with you?! We were talking about how the ball was rigged!"

"Oh really? I thought we were talking about how much I was more blessed than my brother—"

"Don't try to change the subject here!"

The two turned their heads when they heard the door open. Megumi popped her head shyly through the classroom door's threshold. "Um, am I interrupting something here, Isami-san, Souma-kun?" she asked. "It's almost time for us to begin the next class and the two of you weren't in the French lab just yet so I thought of checking up on the two of you."

"Oh no, you weren't interrupting anything at all, Tadokoro-san," Isami said, a rather cheeky grin slowly growing on his face. "In fact…I think you came along with perfect timing."

Megumi blinked twice. "Really?"

Souma blinked. Somehow, he didn't like the feeling brewing in his chest.

Isami nodded. "Yup," he chirped. "And now, I think I have a great question that the Magic Eight Ball should definitely answer right now." All eyes trailed onto the ball as Isami took it into his palm and held onto it with a nice grip.

"Souma-kun, what's that?" Megumi asked as she stared at the round blue object on her friend's palm.

"A rigged piece of plastic junk that answers yes or no questions," Souma grumbled. "Don't believe whatever it says."

"Come on, Yukihira, lighten up a bit," Isami said with a chuckle. "If it really doesn't bother you, then don't spoil it for Tadokoro-chan." He turned to the ball. "In fact, I'll ask one question that we'd all like to know right now! Magic Eight Ball, is there anyone that Tadokoro likes?"

Megumi did a spit take. "W-Whaaaat?!"

"Alright then, let's see what the piece of junk says!" Souma said with a scoff. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Very well, then~"

"W-What's g-going on?! H-How did it even c-come to this?!"

Isami shook the ball hard. "Alley-oop!"

"Wait, s-stop!" Megumi managed to choke out, the heat rise up to her cheeks. How on earth did she even come to this point?

The two boys stared at her. "What, you want to do it?" Isami asked her. Megumi flinched. "It's pretty easy, Tadokoro-san. Just ask it any question answerable with yes or no and shake it hard. When you stop, the answer will float right up the surface." Isami handed the ball to her with a smile. "Here. You try it."

"Yeah, Tadokoro," Souma prodded. "After that, show him how this piece of trash is rigged!"

"You really can't move on, can you?"

"How can I when all of my answers were negative? Rigged, I tell you! Rigged!"

Tadokoro looked at the black ball in her hands, feeling its smooth surface. The blue tiny triangular dice inside swayed as the water inside it kept on moving. She blinked once. Twice. That thing was a toy, obviously. More or less likely, the chances of getting positive or negative answers were very much equal and the outcome would rely on how hard one person shook the thing. And aside from that, she really didn't know exactly what to ask since she had too many uncertain things that bothered her already as she was.

She stared at the two, Isami laughing at Souma's annoyed look. She stared at the ball in her hands. With the earlier thought in mind, Megumi had come to a very clear understanding.

Basically, the latter was worked up over bad luck and timing.

But the thing was, it left that weird feeling of anticipation and curiosity.

Can this thing actually give the answer to what one wishes? She knew that it would most likely be otherwise, but from the look on Souma's face, she couldn't help but laugh inside and feel a little bit disappointed for her friend. After all, it must have been some simple wish, since Souma was very simple-minded and not to mention, rather one-track minded.

And at that moment, she suddenly knew.

The sound of her two friends bickering slowly faded away, with her only focusing on the question she had in mind. Her golden eyes on her palms, she gave it a good shake.

"Rigged, I tell you…"

One good shake.

"…a sore loser, just like Brother…"

Two good shakes.

"Whatever…"

Three good shakes. And she stopped.

Megumi stared at the surface of the ball. She giggled softly, a small smile growing on her face. Souma and Isami caught her giggling, they headed over to where she was. They both leaned in to see her fortune.

"You got good luck, Tadokoro-san," Isami said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Megumi said back.

"No kidding," Souma mused. "What did you wish for anyway, Tadokoro? But then again, that was only one try so who knows what answers she'll get next time."

"I never knew that you really were the type to get hung over small things and take it upon others, Yukihira."

"No, I'm not!"

"And here we go all over again."

Megumi simply laughed at the sight of her friends. Maybe it was best that nobody ought to know about it. She liked the feeling of having the question and the answer all to herself, even if it did seem rather selfish not to tell anybody. Her chest was warm and she felt fuzzy inside. As she stared at her brash and loud red-headed friend, the question echoed in her mind and the warm fuzzy feeling she felt grew stronger.

Magic Eight Ball, grant Souma's wish. However silly it is.

Definitely.


Did I mention that we have finally reached the 9,500 mark? Thanks a million, guys!

Onto chapter 10~