The rules for the evening were simple. At the beginning of the night, every contestant would put in as much money as they wanted to bet, and they would play against each other until one lucky winner went home with everyone's winnings. The games were solely player-on-player - the casino itself was simply sitting back and watching. That confused Koishi - how could they make a profit if none of the money was going their way?

Koishi wasn't the sort of girl who could run a casino, now she thought about it. Maybe there was some logic to the system she didn't understand - attracting customers through attention and fame or something. If so, it wasn't obvious enough for a non-gambler like her to understand.

Better that she thought about that than dwelling on the outfit she'd been forced into. She was better off than Mokou and Sango in that department - one of them was blushing furiously the moment anyone looked in her direction, and the other was on the verge of a genocidal rampage. Even when the crowds started to die down and the amateurs were thrown out, Mokou looked like she'd snap if anyone so much as touched her.

Professor Kawashiro she didn't seem to be sharing in their embarrassment. She was clearly enjoying herself, loving her job even if it was just an act. Koishi saw her pouting like a child as the flow of customers stopped. Apparently, when there were fortunes to be made, no-one had time for her bottle-twirling, cocktail-flinging antics.

The hours rolled by, and the players rolled out. The casino grew less and less crowded, leaving only the hardened professionals in the building. They had little time for refreshments, giving Koishi a chance to slip behind the bar unnoticed.

"Um, Cotton-Tail?" she said. "There's something I was wanting to clear up with you."

Nitori was lost in her work, only looking up when her name was called. Her face lit up, one hand still fiddling with the glass she was cleaning out. "What's up? Want me to teach you how to do some of these tricks? Took me a few years to get down, but I figure there's no harm in trying to take on an apprenti-"

"I'll pass, thanks."

The smile on Nitori's face vanished hastily at that. Koishi didn't allow her to ponder it for too long, pressing onto the actual question.

"...Why do you think there'd be a Siren here?"

A sly grin rose to Nitori's face. "You and Mokou have your specialties, but neither of you are especially...practical when it comes to real-world matters. You're talented, Koishi-san, but you're not particularly good at anything, and Mokou-san only knows how to punch things. To balance the team out there should be someone with a little more cunning, wit, street-smarts, whatever you want to call it. Where better to look for a girl like that than a high-stakes casino?"

Koishi took mild offense to being told she had no specialties, whether or not it was true. Besides that, Nitori's logic seemed awfully like wishful thinking - assuming a team of well-rounded teenagers would get the Teardrops was a big thing to ask. A point that Sango had mentioned earlier in the day came to her, one that had seemed unbecoming of the highly scientific professor.

"...Is this part of your whole 'Yukari planned it all' theory?"

Nitori flinched initially, her grin shifting into a look of surprise. A second later she regained her composure.

"I see Sango's been talking to you."

Koishi nodded. No reason to hide it, after all. Nitori sighed to herself, rubbing a little harder at the glass.

"She's always been a skeptic. All the young ones are. You'd have to be - even by youkai standards, Yukari was just plain unbelievable. If I hadn't seen her myself, I'd probably be just as doubtful as she is."

There was a hint of nostalgia in Nitori's voice, a hanging remembrance of times long since past. It was not a pleasant memory, and her grip on the glass grew tighter to the point where Koishi was afraid it would shatter in her hand. She made to change the subject, but from the distant look in her eye Nitori wasn't really talking to her any more.

"We were the first to meet her. The kappa, I mean. One day she just walked into one of our caverns and declared herself a friend of our people. It would have taken her hours of walking through underwater caverns beneath thousands of feet of water pressure to get there. She wasn't human, but at the same time she was like no youkai the world had ever seen. Some theorised she was some sort of deep sea youkai, or that she was an alien from a meteor that crashed into the seabed, or that she was an embodiment of the planet itself. She never told, and no-one ever figured it out."

The look in Nitori's eyes was youthful. It was the childish look of awe that ran across a girl's face as she witnessed something amazing that she couldn't explain. It was accompanied by a tiny hint of sorrow.

"I only caught glimpses of her myself during breaks from my studies. We were an advanced race, but we had limits - we couldn't, say, split the oceans or light the seabeds. Yukari was different - if someone asked her to do something, no matter how hard, she could make it happen with a click of her fingers. I doubt she was truly faultless, but she was so many magnitudes of power above us it seemed like her power was infinite. If she had anything that remotely resembled a weakness, she did a damn good job of not showing it to anyone."

The glass was shivering in her hand now. The first tiny sounds of cracking were beginning to fill the air, barely loud enough for Koishi to make out right next to her. Nitori bit her lip, and anything resembling a cheerful memory from before faded away.

"...At least, not until THAT day. When the Ravager went feral and began killing our own people, we asked her to intervene. She tried, with every spell and charm she could muster, but we had gone too far. Its barriers and defenses were impenetrable."

Something washed over Nitori then. Koishi watched her shoulders tense in their sockets, every other muscle in her body following suit. Her voice rose in volume until it was almost audible at the card table.

"So she died, of course. Think of it. Yukari Yakumo, ruler of all youkai, the woman who brought the races together under one banner, the strongest creature this planet's ever seen. Dead. And it was my fault, wasn't it? I helped build the very weapon that killed her. If I'd just kept that thing under control, we could have avoided all this. There's be no White Pearl, no Black Claw, no-"

Koishi wasn't the strongest of girls, but she still slapped Nitori hard enough for the sound to silence the room momentarily. Only long enough for them to confirm it wasn't a gunshot, but it was significant nonetheless. A second later, the gamblers were chatting with each other again.

"Stop that." Koishi's voice was more venomous than even she had been expecting. "You're meant to be an example, aren't you?"

Nitori was caught off guard by the attack. She grabbed at her cheek with one hand, staring wordlessly at Koishi.

"Kawashiro-sensei, look at me. I'm just your everyday highschooler, and I am in about five miles over my head." Koishi trembled, her eyes beginning to mist up. "I try not to show it, but sometimes I'm having trouble keeping it all together. I still think about Onee-chan, and there are days where I just want to fall apart."

She held a hand out to the kappa, still shivering. "But I'm trying to get away from that. I'm trying to leave the past behind and move on. And seeing you fall into the same trap..." Her body was racked with one sob after another. "It scares me. I mean...if you can't do it, what chance do I have?"

Nitori's expression shifted from anger to sorrow to shame. She pulled forwards, engulfing the Siren in a hug. Koishi went limp in her arms.

"Don't cry, Koishi-san." Nitori patted her on the back, holding her close. "I didn't mean to scare you like that, I promise. I'm sorry."

Koishi just cried for a while, her face buried in Nitori's chest. She let out everything that was welled up inside her before finding the strength to pull away. By then her head had caught up with what her heart had done.

"Ah." Koishi bowed forward in embarrassment. "Kawashiro-sensei, I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright." Nitori reached down, patting Koishi on the head. "You're struggling, too. And you were right - moping isn't going to get us anywhere." She rubbed at her cheek with her other hand, pouting. "But could you maybe find a less aggressive way to tell me next time?"

Koishi's face was a brilliant red. "U-Uh, sure." She paused for a moment, her eyes welling up again. "And Kawashiro-sensei...thanks for understanding."

"I told you, it's fine." Nitori ruffled at Koishi's hair for good measure. "Now go clean yourself up, okay? We've got a Siren to find."

Koishi came back a few minutes later, her face washed and her composure restored. There were almost no customers now, but she had to stay on guard just to make sure no-one tried to get a drink from Mokou. Now that the phoenix was both tired and humiliated, she was just about on the verge of randomly attacking someone, so Koishi took on every customer she could.

Sango, contrary to popular belief, had been doing something useful other than supplying snacks. She had been phweeing every now and again as customers approached her for food. In all that time, she'd seen nothing resembling a Siren - not even a girl of the right age. She also asked several times to be reassigned to a job that was less embarrassing - a suggestion Nitori refused every time it was asked.

The hours passed slowly, but surely. The hall was too vast for them to examine properly without blowing their cover, but games of every sort were available here. The emphasis was on Western gambling, so poker, blackjack and the like were the big attractions here, with dealers helpfully informing beginners how to play the games. It was all very welcoming and friendly, leaving Koishi to wonder how this place could be linked to criminal activity at all.

She nearly slipped into sleep again, and had to slap herself in the face to keep herself alert. At least when there were customers she'd had something to focus on, but seeing all these men playing games she had no clue how to spectate on did nothing to keep her awake. It was only the sound of a loud bell ringing in the background that stopped her from taking a quick nap. A loud, authoritative voice boomed through the hall.

"Attention, remaining competitors! We are now down to ten players. Please head to the centre table to take part in this evening's final game!"

Ten? They were down that far already? Koishi rubbed her eyes, seeing the hall had emptied while she was distracted. There were only a few survivors left, and they'd all crowded around the centre table with fiendish looks in their eyes. Especially that one on the right - eyes, almost glinting red, with a cockiness and confidence no-one around the table could match-

Wait...

It couldn't be. The odds were astronomical, weren't they? She hadn't seen her in years, not since that time in cram school. It had to be a coincidence, but still...she had to check. Before she was even aware of what she was doing, she'd started walking away from the bar towards the table. The closer she got, the surer she became that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

That girl, the one sitting eagerly with the large pile of chips at her side. Her attention totally focused on the cards flying across the table, her hand absently playing with her top chip. Her dress - long, pink, just ornate enough to look elegant without looking overblown. Her short black hair, poorly kept down as if the stress was too much for it.

There was no doubting it now. This girl was Tewi Inaba, the kid who'd offered Koishi the treasure map that led her into the accident years ago. The girl who couldn't tell the truth to save her life.

It was tempting to call out to her right now, but it wasn't the time. For one, what was she going to do? Accuse Tewi of nearly getting her killed? It'd get her thrown out at the very best, and she didn't want to think about how else the bouncers would respond if she caused a fuss at the most critical moment of the night.

In the end, even being there was enough to catch their attention.

"Hey, aren't you one of the bar girls? What're you doing over here?"

The man was at least two feet taller than her, and three times as heavy. He could probably sit on her and leave an imprint on the carpet if he wanted to. Stuttering slightly, she tried to pull out a save.

"U-Um, I was just thinking it'd be good to stand near the table so people don't have to walk away to order drinks...?"

The questioning tone in her voice didn't win her any favour with the bouncer, but he couldn't argue with her reasoning. He sighed.

"Fine. But not a word to anyone while you're at the table, y'hear? Mr. Morichika isn't gonna have his evening ruined by some petty cheating."

Koishi nodded, more than happy to get out of this mess without having her ribs shattered. The bouncer stepped aside, standing statue-like as play began. Each player was offered two cards, examining them and betting on their worth before more cards were dealt. She stared at the table, mystified, until a hand pulled her back from behind.

"The hell do you think you're doing, Komeiji-san!?"

Mokou pulled her back almost hard enough to send her to the floor. Koishi looked behind her to see Mokou's eyes popping out of her skull.

"Sorry. I had to check something for myself."

Koishi looked over to the pool, where Sango was taking a much-deserved break. Koishi's words jumping into her brain was enough to send her head snapping upwards.

Sango-san. You said there weren't any girls visiting your stand, right?

There was a moment of pause as Sango thought the point over. Koishi could see her nodding in the distance.

Um, yeah. Pretty much. Why?

Koishi looked at the table again, this time focusing on the players rather than whatever game it was they were playing. Most of them were the typical riff-raff you could expect to be hanging out at these casinos, but there were two notable exceptions.

I count...two of them here.

The first was Tewi, an effortless aura of dominance hanging over her. Her stack was already higher than most of her opponents, but it paled compared to the girl across from her.

"Oh, these cards not very good. I be folding now."

She had all the signs of a stuck-up socialite, wearing a denim-jacket and shorts in some sort of attempt at rebellion. Her Japanese was horribly broken and accented, and she had the blonde hair of a typical American. Koishi couldn't make out her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses, whose purpose Koishi couldn't quite place. It wasn't hard to guess that she'd made it here out of sheer luck, but she was surrounded by seasoned gamblers now. Her luck couldn't last much longer, surely.

What? You're kidding, right?

Sango hauled herself out of the pool, drying herself off before she made her way to the table. She used the same excuse Koishi had - staying near the table so that she could offer snacks to players without forcing them to leave their seats.

By now Koishi had watched enough of the game to have a vague idea of the rules. They called it 'Texas Hold 'Em' after a state in America, and it was a simple matter of making the best hand out of your own cards and the cards laid out on the table. She couldn't claim to know any more than that, but it was enough for her to watch the game and have at least a vague idea what was going on.

The last hand before Sango made it to the table was dramatic enough for even a beginner like Koishi to understand.

"All in."

The man right in front of her pushed all of his chips into the centre of the table, a smug grin running onto his face. He started to run a hand through his mullet through sheer nerves - no-one could play for that much money without the pressure getting to them. From here, Koishi could make out his hand - two Aces. Even Koishi could tell that it was a hand worth betting on. His opponents didn't even need to see those cards to know it was time to get out, throwing their hands into the muck.

The action finally turned to Tewi. She glanced at Mullet, examining his expression for a moment. Koishi saw her nod once, measuring out the same number of chips in her own stack. She sighed heavily.

"Eh, I'm feeling lucky. I'm gonna call that one."

The last few players folded, leaving Tewi and Mullet in on their own. There was no point in betting anymore, so both sides simply put down their cards on the table for all to see. He laughed out loud as he placed his two aces on the table, standing up and flexing his arms. Tewi pouted, revealing a meager jack and king in her own hand.

The first three cards were thrown down. A seven. A jack. An ace.

"FUCK YES!"

Mullet pumped his fist so hard that his elbow almost dug into Koishi's chest. Tewi stuck her nose up, but the revelation didn't seem to hurt her in the slightest. Koishi was puzzled by that. Was Tewi such a good player that she'd learned to shield her emotions?

Or did she still think she could win?

"C'mon, Lady Luck. Gimme a little help right now..."

Tewi grabbed at the carrot-shaped pendant around her neck, squeezing it tight. The room was silent, the tension unbearable. The fourth card was dealt.

A King.

Mullet's celebrations came to a sudden halt. He looked down at the King currently lying on the table, blinking rapidly. Both of his hands were now clamped onto his hair, sweat dripping onto his brow.

"...No way."

Tewi simply smiled. Again, her reaction was muffled - she'd gone from a hopeless scenario to a genuine shot at victory. Why didn't she seen to care?

The last card almost seemed to fall in slow motion towards the table. Everyone was looking at it like it was made of solid gold - except for Tewi. Koishi saw her step out of the chair and celebrate before the card had even been played.

A few seconds later, everyone else knew why.

"The final card is the King of Clubs. Miss Inaba has made a Full House and won the hand."

Most of the players responded with shocked gasps and mild applause. All, at least, except one.

"What the fuck?! The hell is this bullshit!?"

Mullet was furious, grabbing at his hair so fiercely Koishi thought he was going to rip it clean off his head. He immediately took strides straight towards his opponent. His fists clenched up, his knuckles turning white, and he looked set to punch a hole straight through Tewi's head.

A much larger and well-built bouncer stopped him before he could do anything of the sort.

"Alright, pal, we'll have none of that shit in here! Get out before we have to send a stretcher for ya!"

Mullet's face ran a series of emotions - anger, fear, guilt, hatred, bravado, panic - until finally, the survival instinct took precedence. For a moment his entire body shivered before finally he bolted for the door, trying not to let anyone see that he was crying in his last moments.

Silence returned to the table. Every eye was transfixed on the door Mullet had just departed from. The sound of Tewi adding her new winnings to her stack of chips pulled them back to the game at hand.

"Heh. Wuss."

If the tension had affected Tewi at all, she didn't show it. Koishi would've been impressed if she hadn't seen Tewi's lying antics years earlier.

Huh? What did I miss?

Sango showed up just as the game began to pick up again, like she'd timed her arrival to be moments too late. Koishi paused, her heart racing just at the thought of all the money at stake.

I...honestly have no idea. Tewi - that girl there in the dress fluked a win on a crazy hand.

Sango tilted her head. Fluked, huh? Well, apparently we're here to look for someone with real guile, not just dumb luck. This night might've just been for nothing...

The dolphin slumped downward at that. All those hours of embarrassment and disgrace, and there was nothing to show for it. She let out a tiny, pitiful sound as her dignity fell into the distance.

"P-Phwee..."

No-one heard it other than Koishi. For a few seconds, there was no sound in the room other than the shuffling of cards.

Then, in time with Sango suddenly standing to attention, a hurried sentence jumped into Koishi's head.

K-Koishi-san! I...I got a response?!

Koishi's heart jumped. Nitori's crazy theory had turned up a result after all? Maybe Yukari had just chosen someone who luck had a habit of smiling on.

So, wait...is Tewi...?

Sango looked over for a moment, her face frozen. After a few slow, painful seconds, she shook her head.

Wait, you mean-

Both of them looked over to the other side of the table, towards the clueless-looking blonde girl with a stash of what was probably her father's money.

She's a Siren!?

There was no way either of them could pay full attention to the game now. They'd hit the metaphorical jackpot - the Siren they'd gone through all that trouble to look for, and it was some blonde bimbo who looked like this was her first time in the country.

Sango-san, are you sure about this? Maybe the sleep dep is getting to you.

Sango took offense at that, pouting childishly in Koishi's direction. Hey! Say what you want about me in other areas, but I trained my sonar senses for years! No way I'd make a mistake not seeing a Siren right in front of me.

Koishi bit her lip. She trusted Sango, but believing that this girl was a Siren was almost too much. Where was the cunning and wit Nitori had been expecting from her? She looked like she'd lose in a debate with an inanimate object.

Still, Sango had never been wrong up until now, so she decided to run with it.

Go tell the others about this. Get them to watch as well.

Sango nodded, running back to the bar to bring Mopsy and Cotton-Tail to join the audience. They didn't miss much of interest - Blondie folded yet again, still not happy with her cards. Slowly but surely, the chips she needed to put in every few hands started to add up, and her stack began to dwindle.

There was something wrong with this. Sango said she was a Siren, and yet nothing she did was remotely Siren-like. Koishi reached towards her eyes, making to take off her glasses, only to remember at the last moment Nitori had given her and Mokou contact lenses to serve the same purpose while in disguise. Her reasoning was that bunnygirls and glasses was something of a fetish overload, reasoning Koishi now suddenly wished didn't exist.

It was a long wait as the four 'caterers' watched Blondie. Eventually they learned that her name was Luna Fullerton - even her name felt clunky and out of place here. She seemed perpetually clueless. Occasionally Nitori would look over at her hand to see her throwing away the best hands for nothing. Did she even know how to play this game? Koishi had caught onto the rules after a few hands, and it seemed like even she would do better playing than this girl.

"Oh, me sorry. Me thought I winning, but maybe not."

When she did play hands, it seemed almost at random. She could play the best cards possible or the worst hand she could ever have been dealt with equal confusion, and only the sheer size of her starting stack stopped her from going totally bankrupt.

Meanwhile, Tewi was making short work of the other players. Sometimes she simply had a better hand from the start, other times she pulled out a lucky escape on the last card. Whatever it was, her stack was gradually rising.

Eventually, there were only three players left. Tewi, Blondie, and in last place a stick-like man in a pair of broad-rimmed glasses. By now, Tewi held roughly three quarters of the money up for grabs - hundreds of millions of yen, enough to live on for the rest of her life. Still she showed no sign of cracking under the pressure, sitting back in her chair as she threw away the latest crap hand to come to her.

That left Blondie and Glasses to contest over the last pot, with Glasses to act first. He glanced down at his cards, then at Blondie. He shuffled his glasses slightly to align them, then pushed what remained of his cash into the pot.

"I'll go all in, please."

It was a brave move, but not foolish. Koishi had been paying enough attention to notice that if anyone went all in, Blondie would remove herself from the game as quickly as possible with a frightened look on her face. This was a quick way to pick up the small amount she'd paid to enter the hand; not much, but enough to keep him afloat for a little longer.

Or at least, that's what he had planned.

"Mr. Glasses Man. Can I ask question?"

Blondie was staring at the chips. At least, Koishi thought she was - it was hard to tell behind those sunglasses of hers. Glasses put on a smug grin, adjusting his collar.

"Why, anything for a charming lady such as yourself. What is it?"

He was playing the charisma card, but it had failed miserably. The four girls spectating moaned uncontrollably as the words left his mouth without any sense of pizazz.

The moaning stopped the moment Blondie asked her question.

"Did you know you always shuffle those glasses of yours when you bluff?"

There was a sudden, deathly silence. Tewi raised an eyebrow in confusion, while Glasses pulled back like he'd just been shot.

"W-What?! But how did you-"

He'd said too much. His hand slipped over his mouth, the colour slipping from his face. He'd given himself away in the worst way possible. Without a second thought, Blondie pushed her own stack in as well, calling the man's claim. She allowed herself a more mature chuckle as she laid down her pair of queens on the table, her Japanese suddenly natural and fluent.

"Would you like to know a secret? You don't really shuffle your glasses when you lie. I just wanted to see how you'd respond."

Glasses didn't offer a response, his cards falling to the floor. A four and an eight - practically useless. Sure enough, five dealt cards later, and Blondie's queen-pair was triumphant. She reached over, pulling in Glasses' stack from in front of him without so much as a hint of remorse.

"Oh, and thank you for calling me charming. Though I assume in the hustler's dictionary, that's another word for 'gullible'."

The man Blondie had just eliminated from the tournament didn't even try to respond with words. He held his head in his hands, his eyes seeming dead as he stood up and trudged out toward the exit. Unlike Mullet, no-one needed to threaten him to leave - he shuffled along, still stuttering and moaning to himself in shock.

Koishi was only slightly more coherent, rubbing her eyes to make sure she'd actually seen what she thought she'd seen. Blondie's stance was completely different now - she sat up straight, and the sunglasses were pulled away to reveal a pair of piercing blue eyes.

It had been a trick of the highest calibre, and Koishi had been completely taken in by it. Looking at her sides, she could see Sango and Mokou giving off the same dumbfounded looks, but Nitori simply watched on with a proud grin. This was the sort of trickster she'd been looking for, and she'd just proven herself in style.

Tewi offered the girl a small round of applause.

"Not bad. I shoulda figured you wouldn't have made it this far without having a good idea what you were doing. I'm guessing Luna isn't your real name either?"

"Of course not. Only an amateur would see fit to use a real name along with a fictitious character. But, since I'll be doing my best to relieve you of that fortune of yours tonight, it is only fair that I tell you who I am."

What came out of her mouth next was enough to make Koishi's skin crawl.

"My name is Sakuya Izayoi, and rest assured that stack of yours will be mine within the next two hands."