Notes: Episode 118, "The Battle in a Demonic Dimension! The Sailor Soldier's Bet". Or, "The one where the Senshi play games to try to get free from the crazy house".

Episode 118

Leaving Hotaru in the capable hands of her father, the Sailor Senshi leapt away, fulfilling Usagi's need for an exit as dramatic as their entrance. Fortunately this time there was significantly less bickering. Once they were sufficiently secluded, the five girls detransformed and, along with Chibi-Usa, began a causal walk back to the Shrine and their hastily-interrupted study session. Conversation mostly revolved around their most recent ordeal. A waterfall? Really? Nobody had seen that one coming.

There was, however, one thing everyone was very specifically NOT talking about. Oh the question was there. It was visible in the side glances, could be heard in the pauses that were slightly too long while someone struggled to find something to say that wasn't that.

Until Minako couldn't take it anymore.

"ROULETTE?"

The girls fell silent. Makoto's eyes looked to her left, where Rei and Minako were peering at her, and to her right where Usagi, Ami and Chibi-Usa waited for an explanation.

"Yeeeaaahh?" Mako said, wondering what the problem was.

"Roulette, Mako-chan. Who the hell picks roulette?"

"I do?"

Minako slapped a hand to her forehead. Mako turned to the others, still not seeing the problem.

"I have to admit it confused me, too," Ami said. "I was expecting something a little more…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to think how best to describe it.

"Strong!" Usagi said helpfully.

Mako frowned a little.

"Like arm wrestling!" Chibi-Usa agreed.

"Or that punching bag thing!" said Rei.

"Not ROULETTE." Minako finished.

Mako was fully frowning now. "But I'm good at roulette."

Her friends nearly tripped on the pavement. "Nobody's GOOD at roulette!" Minako seemed to be taking Mako's game choice particularly personally.

"*I* am."

"But the odds of winning are … Let's see, if there are 38 pockets and you had only one spin—"

Rei shook her head, jumping to Ami's inevitable conclusion. "It's all luck, Mako."

"And I'm lucky."

"THAT lucky?"

"Sure," Mako said. "It's been customer appreciation week for some local shops near my apartment. They have a roulette game set up, and whenever I play, I win!"

"Awesome!" cheered Chibi-Usa.

Mako beamed and nodded enthusiastically. "I got a whole new set of cookware!"

"Was Rei with you?" asked Usagi, suddenly suspicious.

Rei leaned past Makoto, her eyes narrowing. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh I don't know just that maybe SOME people don't care HOW they win, Miss I'm-Going-On-A-Cruise-Without-You!"

"That was forever ago! AND I don't do that anymore!"

"Ah-HA! You always said you didn't do it AT ALL!"

"Why don't you—"

Rei and Usagi's bickering was immediately muffled as both girls found their entire face smothered by one of Mako's palms. "Rei wasn't with me," Mako said casually, ignoring her friends scrabbling at her hands. "I just won, that's all."

"Still," said Ami. She dodged as Usagi's flailing arm sailed past her nose. "Why not choose a game of skill? Something where you have some degree of control?"

"Leaving it up to luck like that!" Minako plucked Rei's beseeching hand off of her shirt. "If you hadn't lost, Mako, we might've—"

"I didn't lose," Mako said.

Everyone fell silent. Even Usagi and Rei stopped their frantic, stifled pleas, and Mako removed her hands.

"That's right, the Daimon cheated!" said Chibi-Usa.

Minako blinked. "Huh."

Mako lifted her eyebrows in a "see?" gesture, and crossed her arms with a satisfied smirk. "I'm good at roulette," she repeated.

"Wow, so that waterfall, huh?" Usagi said.

This essentially came about as I was ranting to Hubby, Minako-style, about Mako's game selection. "But Mako won," he pointed out, "so she DID make the right choice." And then the end of this was me.