The Swindler, the Vanishing Man, and the Pretty Boys
26. Once More Unto the Breach
It was hard for me to fully assess the plan that Sotoin elaborated for us because he spoke at such a lightning clip, but it seemed surprisingly well calculated─not that Sotoin calculates anything (after all, only his eye is trained, not his mind), but it was definitely true that we could achieve a great deal by putting the Reasonable Doubt Casino out of business.
We’d be depriving the guests of their night spot and the staff of their jobs, but we’d be protecting them at the same time─and we’d also be achieving our councilman’s goal of taking preventive measures to protect the students of Yubiwa Academy.
It was too much to hope that we could totally sever the ties between Fudatsuki and the Twenties, which is to say his ties with the military contractor, but their dealings would probably take time to re-establish if we busted them up for the moment─and if we did so as invited guests of the casino, we’d be playing by their rules, even if those rules were illegal. Which is to say, there shouldn’t be any lingering resentment that would come back to bite us.
And we had the means to do it, even if I wasn’t wild about what they were.
With my eyesight, we’d be able to take care of the kuroko─which meant that breaking Fudatsuki’s winning streak was more than an empty fantasy.
This was about as good as it could get for a plan thrown together without any forethought─but to implement it, we had to clear a number of hurdles.
Sotoin appeared bent on returning this very night to the Reasonable Doubt Casino… Which is to say, Kamikazari Middle School Gymnasium #2, but wouldn’t that be kind of tricky?
I mean, we kind of stood out─after all, one of our party had been up on the stage only a few hours earlier.
If we showed up that very same night after having been thrown out in front of everyone, we were guaranteed to raise suspicions.
Not to mention the fact that Fudatsuki had referred to us as the members of the Pretty Boy Detective Club as he was seeing us out─although I guess it wasn’t surprising that the student council president of Kamikazari Middle had done a bit of research about his putative rival school.
Setting aside whether he knew about the newbie (me), we should probably assume that he’d recognized the other five from the start─and actually, it was quite possible he’d dropped that wad of cash in front of me precisely because he knew I was the newest member of the Pretty Boy Detective Club.
It was as though he’d targeted us first when he set out to expand his territory because we were most likely to get in his way─maybe I was being paranoid, but with a plot this tangled, it seemed entirely possible.
Wrapping up the whole affair before the casino closed that night seemed tough, but this was urgent─we definitely couldn’t sit around waiting until it opened again a whole week later.
Nor could I imagine things cooling down if we did.
Another big problem was that we didn’t have enough invitations─I’d only received a tenth of the original sum Fudatsuki dropped, which came to a hundred thousand yen.
Ten ten-thousand-yen bills, each with one invitation tucked inside─and we’d already used six of them.
That left four invitations.
In other words, we were two invitations short.
“I guess two of us could stay here…?” I timidly proposed.
Although I probably couldn’t be one of those two, since Sotoin’s plan relied on my eyesight.
That was my thought, but…
“I’m distressed that you would say such a thing, young Dojima,” the leader chided. “Have you forgotten the fourth rule of the Pretty Boy Detective Club?”
The fourth rule─Be a team.
I hadn’t forgotten, but now I realized that even though all the members were so freewheeling and independent, they apparently placed a lot of value on sticking together.
“B-But there just aren’t enough invitations…”
“Fear not. I have an excellent plan.”
The leader turned to the Pretty Boy Detective Club’s resident artist.
“Sosaku. I’ll be needing you.”
As the child genius nodded silently, the nature of Sotoin’s plan dawned on me─since copying the masters was the cornerstone of artistic skill, reproducing a couple of casino invitations would probably be child’s play for someone like Sosaku Yubiwa.
Sotoin must want him to make two extras so that everybody had one─at least, that was my best guess.
I should have known that any excellent plan based on his excellent aesthetic wouldn’t be nearly so logical.