The stuff here has been on my mind a lot. The manga for Kakegurui is nowhere near being finished and I started to write this story after Chapter 68 of the manga. I decided I will not wait for what the manga has in store, but instead give an alternative take on the things.

FFnet Kakegurui fandom doesn't seem too active. Please leave a review or a follow, I also have this on AO3 so let me know if you wan't updates here on this too!

Thank you, and hopefully you enjoy this chapter!

Nova

The black town car drove in front of the school gates and four girls emerged from the backseat. Mary was hoping they wouldn't draw so much attention. A group of girls nearby were trying to act casual and pretended they weren't just ogling the blonde and the President's assistant who were an unusual sight and a disturbance to the Momobami daily rituals.

Breakfast and the ride to the school had been rather uneventful. Kirari had kept her usually sharp remarks to a minimum and this led Mary to a conclusion that the President was not a morning person, which made her seem a bit more human.

Kirari was already halfway across the yard with Sayaka taking hurried steps behind her. Ririka stayed by the gate to wait for Mary who was determined to keep walking nonchalantly and not care about the curious bystanders. She passed Ririka on her way and didn't notice the agitated look on the silver-haired girl who, again, was wearing her mask.

"Hey, everything OK?" Ririka said, sound coming off distorted from her mask.

"Yeah, I just want to get out of the spotlight," Mary said and kept walking.

They reached the stairs leading to the school, when Yumeko creeped up on Mary and grabbed her friend by the waist.

"Maaary-san! Good, you're here!" Yumeko said, flashing a big smile.

"UGH! Get off!" came the immediate answer and Mary kept shoving her friend further. Ririka stood still, watched the two without saying a word.

"I want to find a fun gamble den today, after school. Please, would you join me? You left so early yesterday," Yumeko said and pouted. Mary glanced at Ririka's direction but got nothing out of the masked girl.

"Yeah, I guess I have nothing planned." Mary couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something seemed a bit off with the silver-haired girl. It wasn't the fact that she was not talking, that was not unusual but maybe it was the whole posture and aura surrounding her that felt strange.

"Wonderful! Will you be joining us too, Vice President?" Yumeko was being her polite self.

"I would like to, if the Student Council does not need me," Ririka replied, voice still nearly robotic through the mask. Mary grinded her teeth, spending time with Ririka was the one thing she had been enjoying for the past 24 hours but having her around with the mask on again was getting on her nerves.

"Excuse me, I need to get going. I will see you at lunch, Mary-san… Jabami-san…" Ririka gave a small polite bow and started to climb up the stairs. Mary was about to call after her but resisted the urge.

After the Vice President had disappeared through the doors, Yumeko turned to Mary with a wicked grin on her face. "So, Mary-san, I just saw all of you arrive in the same car. Were you all having fun without me?"

Red tint rose on the blonde's cheeks in an instant and she hurried ahead and left the dark-haired girl standing on the bottom of the stairs, still grinning.

Lunchtime came and Mary felt slightly nervous over the sight of the silver-haired girl standing outside class and waiting.

"Mary, I need a word with you, can we go somewhere private?" Ririka was fidgeting impatiently when the blonde walked up to her.

"Of course, wait just a sec… Oy! Yumeko!" Mary turned around to find her friend from the crowd leaving the classroom. She spotted the gambling addict walking with Suzui, turning towards Mary calling out for her. "We need a moment, just go on ahead without us."

Mary gestured they should go back to the classroom, checking it was empty of other students first and waited for the Vice President to step in and closed the door behind them. Ririka turned back to face Mary and removed the mask. The blonde felt her heart flutter at the sight of the timid girl, the familiar tint coloring her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but I think I need to pass on today's gambling. There's urgent family business Kirari asked me to take care of," Ririka said quietly.

"Sure, just take your time—" Mary started to think there was more to this than just simple family business matters.

"I need to go to our family estate up North, I might not return before late next week." Ririka was nearly tearing up over the news she had to deliver.

"You'll be gone for a whole week?" Mary felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She had already mulled over a few ideas of the two spending more time together.

"Please, don't forget about me while I'm gone," Ririka said, quietly holding back tears. Mary took a step closer and grabbed the older girl's hand.

"Hey stupid, of course I won't." Mary tried to encourage the other girl.

Ririka took a long breath and tried to steady her nervousness before she continued. "One more thing, you can't tell anyone we had this conversation."

The two joined others for lunch and departed to attend the afternoon classes. Mary was bothered by the fact that Ririka had been acting so strange earlier. She also hoped she would have gotten a bit more time to spend with her in the classroom, but the silver-haired girl had been almost too eager to join the others and not discuss about the matter any further.

The bell rang at the end of the last class of the day and Mary was gathering her things when the excessively eager dark-haired girl grabbed her to an awkward hug.

"Time to gamble, Mary-san!" Yumeko said joyfully, ignoring the struggles of the blonde in her embrace.

"NNGH! Stop, Yumeko, can't breathe…" Mary said, warm and soft boobs squishing her face partially while she was still seated.

"Let's not keep the Vice President waiting, Mary-san!" Yumeko eased her grip and let the blonde finish stuffing her things in her bag.

"Uh, yeah, she mentioned that she might not be attending—"

"Oh, she did? Well, I guess she decided to join us after all, she's out in the hallway waiting." Yumeko continued. Mary's shoulders tensed up and she lurched around on her seat, jumped up and walked towards the Vice President. Before she had time to say anything, the silver-haired girl lifted her index finger in front of the mask to gesturing Mary to keep her mouth shut.

Yumeko emerged through the door, dragging Suzui behind her, who was carrying two bags.

"You left your bag, Mary-san. Good afternoon, Vice President." Yumeko greeted the girl politely and seemed to be oblivious about the things that were going on in the hallway. Mary however had an educated guess what was going on and was getting anxious.

"No need for such formalities, please, call me Ririka," the silver-haired girl responded, voice transformed from the mask. Mary was clenching her fists so hard her knuckles had turned white.

"Oh, that's very nice of you, Ririka-san!" Yumeko's face was beaming. "Now, where should we go? I want to have a nice gamble tonight!"

"I heard the first-year students just opened a new den close to the library," Suzui said and offered Mary her bag, but she was too occupied feeling pissed off to notice. "Uh… Mary-san? Your bag?"

"W-what? Oh… yeah." Mary snapped out of her trance and snatched the bag out of Suzui's hands quickly.

The group started to walk towards the library, Mary kept eyeing the masked girl and felt a lump of discomfort form in her stomach. Suzui and Yumeko were engaged in a jolly conversation and Mary didn't feel like participating. The lurking feeling of deception lingered around Mary and made her vision blurry. When they reached the club room they were looking for, she let the others go inside and stopped the Vice President.

"What kind of a sick game is this supposed to be, President?" Mary said quietly under her breath and gave a murderous look to the masked girl.

"I think you mean Vice President, Mary-san?" Expressionless voice sounded behind the mask.

"What right do you think you have to pretend to be friends with us all?" The blonde made sure her question was dripping with contempt.

"You made a promise earlier today, I understood as much. Please, make sure you keep it," the Vice President said in a quiet robotic voice.

"It did not include this. How am I supposed to act normal when I know—"

"You know nothing, Mary-san. Now please refrain from using extreme measures to expose what you think you have uncovered. Do that and I promise I will make this worth your efforts." The Vice President stood still, waiting for the blonde to give an answer.

After a long pause, Mary had been trying to collect her thoughts and make more sense of the situation, she finally replied. "Fine. I'll play your game, for now. But if I see you taking advantage of my friends, I'll expose everything. Leave them out of this."

The evening was thoroughly exhausting, Mary had to make sure she didn't pay too much attention to the masked girl. The whole evening, she kept hoping she could just go home, preferably have a certain silver-haired girl waiting for her there. She knew this would not happen and found it hard to focus on the game they had been playing. Having the Vice President around was hard, everything about her was too similar to Ririka but there was still something missing. She knew nobody else paid any attention to the small things, they had no reason to doubt any foul play. Ririka had been accompanying them lately a lot, usually as a bystander in everything and someone almost unnoticeable and at times, Mary was sure Yumeko and Suzui forgot that the Vice President was there.

The decoy was doing a fairly good job, staying in the background and not raising any suspicions. Mary's brain was working on overdrive, having Kirari posing as the Vice President must have meant that Ririka was acting as the head of the family somewhere. Mary was sure they wouldn't make a blunder of having two Kiraris or two Ririkas anywhere at the same time. She also realized that Ririka had known about this when they had a talk in the classroom before lunch and it made her stomach turn. Why hadn't she told everything and why was it bothering Mary so much? The blonde decided to divert her thoughts elsewhere, she wouldn't be getting any real answers for a week.

Mary surveyed the room, the first-year students seemed to be desperate and as their moves started to get bold, they were also easier to read. Yumeko seemed content of being the weirdest role model of a crazy gambler and drove the unsuspecting students to a corner constantly. Seeing the first-years take all the risks she was inciting them to take, the dark-haired girl seemed to be thrilled. Suzui was collecting easy profits, taking advantage of the openings Yumeko was creating. The Vice President sat quietly next to Mary and did not participate in their game. Mary was not sure if it was the mask or the fact that she was a student council member, but the other students seemed to be a bit afraid to even look at her direction.

Mary was aware that she was most probably coming off as distant and indifferent to the game. Having lost already a quite hefty amount of money, she decided to pay a bit more attention. Maybe having the game end sooner, she could finally go home and scream against her pillow to ease the anxiety.

The following days went by slowly for Mary. She still hadn't gotten used to the fact of having the fake Vice President following her everywhere and it made the school days very tiring. Mary was glad the weekend was approaching; it was Friday and already time for lunch. Seeing the Vice President's figure standing outside the classroom got Mary grinding her teeth again, another encounter she had to endure. She missed hearing Ririka's voice and the timid aura that nobody else seemed to notice was missing from the current imposter. Mary ignored the Vice President when she stepped to the hallway and headed straight to the cafeteria.

The emptiness Mary had been feeling since Ririka left was nagging Mary every minute. Seeing the masked girl kept messing with the blonde's head. Her mind registered the familiar sight and filled her head with the fuzzy feeling of excitement. It was soon followed by the bitter taste of her rational thought telling her brain that it was wrong. She tried staying at home and avoid all human contact, but found the minutes passing even slower when she was alone. She had no other means of contacting Ririka than through her twin sister, which she firmly decided she would use as her last resort. She tried to gamble, but it only made her more agitated when the opponents were uninspiring and easily defeated. Her usual days filled with activities now seemed somewhat grey and boring and she tried to remember what motivated her before Ririka forced her way into her life.

"Say, Yumeko, do you have any plans for the weekend?" Mary was trying to occupy her spare time with as much as she could.

"Oh? There's a new bakery opening tonight. They will even have a cake buffet!" Yumeko replied.

"Can I come too?" Mary wasn't exactly in the mood for sweets but was willing to take any distraction she could.

"Of course! Would you like to join us too, Ririka-san?" Yumeko asked, seemingly thrilled. Mary held her breath, this was not the outcome she wanted for the night.

"You're inviting me? I—"

"Heh, you had that other thing tonight, right?" Mary hurried to add. She gave the masked girl a stern look. "The Student Council business?"

"Nice of you to remind me, Mary-san. Please excuse me, I just remembered I need to take care of something right now. I will not be joining you for lunch. Have a nice weekend," the Vice President said with a small bow. She turned around on her heels and walked away, leaving Mary feeling rather relieved.

Yumeko had a puzzled look on her face, she stopped for a while and was lost in her thoughts.

"You coming?" Mary asked.

"I'm sorry, Mary. Did I say something wrong?" Yumeko asked quietly.

"What? No. Why do you ask?" Mary's heart started racing. She had a reason to comply with Kirari's demands and she made a promise to Ririka too.

"Did you two have a fight? With Ririka-san, I mean." Yumeko frowned.

"Ah—well, something like that, yeah," Mary said and hoped the master gambler wouldn't read anything more of the situation.

"I'm sure you can work it out! Oh, the invitation for the party tonight said it's a formal black-tie event." Yumeko changed the subject to Mary's relief. The relief was short-lived, though.

"WHAT?! I can't wear… I don't even own a dress that fancy," Mary said regretting her decisions already.

"Don't worry about it, we'll go to buy you a new one after school! Oh, that will be fun! Please~~ Come with me tonight," Yumeko pleaded.

"Ugh—fine." Mary resigned. She felt self-conscious but was sure it would get her mind off from Ririka for a while. "But it's not a date or anything, so don't you get any funny ideas…"

Mary was staring at the strange reflection in her mirror. Her hair was pulled up in a neat bun and she was wearing a rather expensive red dress. The layers of make-up on her face felt weird too, she usually just applied a carefree layer of mascara and occasionally some lip-gloss. Yumeko was lurking behind her back, beaming ear to ear.

"You look beautiful! I knew this was a good idea!"

"I feel like this is not me at all. Heck, maybe that's a good thing," Mary said while taking closer look at herself.

"Of course, it is. But we need to get going, the event has already started. Good thing you live so close to the centrum. We could just walk from here." Yumeko suggested.

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm not walking in these heels; I'll pay for the taxi." Mary resisted.

"Can I leave my things here and pick them up when we leave?" Yumeko pointed at the mountain of make-up and her change of clothes she grabbed from her apartment on their way.

"Sure. If it's too late, I have futon you can use." Mary said, not thinking too much about inviting Yumeko to stay overnight.

The event was a blast, Mary felt glad she had taken up on Yumeko's offer. The girls had fun coming up with various polite but passive-aggressive responses to some advances from random men attending the party. Yumeko shot a few curious looks when Mary used half-confessions as her excuses why she wouldn't want to go out with the guys. She confronted Mary later during the evening.

"So, what's all of this 'I'm dating someone wearing a mask?' all about?" Yumeko poked the blonde's sides playfully.

"W-what? Nothing… Just popped into my head," Mary said defensively, turning slightly red.

"And 'I need to go home to take care of my twins' then?" Yumeko laughed.

"Eeh—what do you mean? I'm old enough to have babies." Mary said, also laughing.

"So, what's really going on with you and Ririka?" Yumeko suddenly asked. "I'm not blind, Mary-san. I'm also your friend so you can tell me anything."

Mary stopped laughing. She tried to think of a way out of the situation but saw her friend's face and knew she wouldn't give the subject up.

"Let's just say it's complicated." Mary wasn't lying.

"What is complicated? You both obviously like each other." Yumeko was stating the obvious.

"Well, maybe. But she is not telling me everything, which makes it hard to know what she's going through," Mary said, surprised at her own conclusions of the past events.

"So, something happened and she can't tell you what is wrong, then?" Yumeko caught on quick.

"Uh—something like that, yeah. I think it's because she can't tell me, not because she doesn't want to." Mary was glad she could talk about her feelings with someone.

"Uh-huh. So, it's some family or school business then?" Yumeko concluded. "My guess is that this has something to do with the President, right?"

"Heh. Yeah, that's pretty accurate," Mary said with an awkward smile.

"I'm rooting for you, anyway. The President should stay away from this, it's none of her business." Yumeko said seriously.

"Damn right. I might take up on that and tell her next week." Mary was determined and sure what she needed to do. "Thank you, Yumeko. This was really insightful."

The two girls eventually arrived back to Mary's place with a taxi. The blonde paid for the fee, as she had promised she would, and they got off. Mary was searching for her keys when Yumeko grabbed her chin. For a second Mary got panicked that Yumeko would try something funny. Her chin was turned and pointed at another direction and the blonde's mind went from panic to excitement and then ended up getting riled up. A black town car was parked close to the curb and a silver-haired girl with a mask stepped outside.

Mary shove the small clutch she was holding to Yumeko and started walking up to the car.

"HOW DARE YOU, JUST WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR PROBLEM—" Mary was getting anxious but the girl running towards her and throwing her arms around her caught her by surprise.

After a few confusing seconds Mary returned the embrace and held the girl tightly with tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Riri."