Not a detective

Page 176

She is, after all, a coffee (tasting) master; she would never miss even the slightest difference.

Xingyu let out a long "Eh—" and pretended to be stupid:

"We just have this name for the shop, we didn't say we had to use that particular coffee bean. And our budget isn't as generous as yours..."

"Wow, your service is terrible, I'm going to file a complaint."

Seeing that the two were bickering again, Asakawa Riku moved the cup of coffee over and took a sip himself.

It certainly didn't taste as good as the coffee he drank at the office. Although he couldn't taste a huge difference, the quality of the coffee beans must have made a big difference.

If you only look at the interaction between these two people, you might think that Shinonome Suetsuki has a bad attitude towards Hoshino, or even bullies her.

But after a while, you'll realize that this is just their usual way of getting along, and they've gotten used to it.

That's just how the relationship between these two is... Once they're blinded by jealousy, they can't see the important people around them. I'm very glad that things have returned to normal.

Even the cheap instant coffee tasted sweet.

After chatting for a few minutes, Xingyu was called away by the busy situation in the store. After all, she was the backbone and couldn't slack off easily.

Asakawa Rikuya got up, ready to leave:

"You can look around by yourself. I have to work, so I won't accompany you."

Saying it's for work is a lie. Wearing this outfit is already a huge sacrifice for him; he wouldn't be showing his face to greet guests.

I'm going to find a corner to slowly slack off.

But Mo Yue stopped him, pointed to the menu and said, "I want to order another thing, Sweet Omelette Rice, just this one, I want you to make it yourself."

"Forget it, you don't like sweets, don't make things difficult for me."

Asakawa Riku still remembered how terrible his cooking skills were: "Even the gods and monsters couldn't finish this. Be careful, you might poison yourself to death."

"Never mind that, the customer is always right. I've already paid for it, just bring it to me. Maybe my tastes are different from others."

Mo Yue ignored everything and stared at Asakawa Riku with her beautiful eyes, then suddenly blurted out, "Besides, you still have questions for me, right?"

Once again, he experienced the feeling of being completely seen through.

It's as if there are no secrets.

Asakawa Riku was silent for a moment, then leaned closer and whispered, "Two questions, two questions, and I'll make it for you myself."

Moyue smiled and whispered in his ear:

"Not only do I want omelet rice and heart-shaped ketchup, I also want the 'So cute! So cute!' slogan~"

"……it is good."

Asakawa Riku gritted his teeth and agreed. He had just stood up when he sat down again and immediately asked his first question:

"In the last round of 'Air Poker,' after calming down, I realized that I did write down '7,' not '44,' so you did cheat."

"Yes."

Mo Yue answered decisively without any pretense, perhaps because she had fought against Hannya instead of Hoshino at the time, so she felt no guilt whatsoever.

"How exactly did you cheat... You didn't have a pen and paper on you, even if you dropped them temporarily, but when did you get them?"

Asakawa Riku couldn't understand it. He was wearing a temporary school uniform on the day of the last month and had even forgotten to bring his medicine. There was no way he could have hidden paper and pen.

Mo Yue's answer was surprisingly simple: "Do you remember the rock-paper-scissors game in the principal's office? We used paper and pen."

"That was... the third game, right...?"

Asakawa Riku was stunned; he hadn't expected it to be so long ago.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that's true. When writing the rules, we used paper and pen, and in the end, Motsuki even did some deductions and scribbled on the draft.

At the time, we thought she was afraid of leaving waste paper, so she took the trash away. Now it seems that she may have taken the opportunity to hide the paper and pen in her pocket.

"Furthermore, you deliberately asked me to write down the rules for your homemade hand gestures so that you could learn to imitate my handwriting..."

"I already learned it, I'm just lazy. But I did get the paper and pen from there. After I finished using them, I put them back outside her office and only took the note with the number 44 on it."

Moyue explained.

The game rules prohibited entering the room, so she didn't go into the office; she simply left the room by the door and didn't talk to Principal Komiya for help.

I got the paper and pen a long time ago.

"You anticipated the use of paper and pen so long ago? Did you guess that the final challenge would be Xingyu? Did you deliberately lead us to play a game of 'air poker' with numbers written on it?"

"It's not that magical. I'm just a good kid who collects the trash. My handwriting is very important. I can't just leave it outside. If it gets misused, the loss will be huge."

Mo Yue waved her hand dismissively. What she said made a lot of sense. As a scion of a wealthy family, her handwriting and signature might actually be valuable.

He then turned to the second question:

"Okay, one more question. It's also about [Air Poker]. You wrote the 44 in the last round yourself, right? Since you wrote the number yourself, you don't need to worry about the rules. Why didn't you choose the four of a kind: 7 of Spades, 7 of Clubs, 7 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, and Q of Clubs? That would definitely beat Xingyu's hand. Wouldn't it have been better if you had written '40'?"

"I can win even if I write 44. Wouldn't it be great if I won? 44 is just a bit luckier."

Mo Yue was talking complete nonsense. Although she didn't think much of the coffee, she actually pulled her over and took a sip.

"No, you didn't win. The score was 3:2. You had to win by two points to take the lead, which meant you had to trigger the 'bumper card' penalty rule."

Asakawa Riku shook his head. Of course, he couldn't remember every detail of that card game. Instead, he took out his notebook and tried to recall the events based on what he had recorded that day.

When he reviewed the game afterward, he noticed this odd thing: "You should know that Xingyu had a 29. If she wanted to make a full house, she had to add two 7s. If you included all the 7s, you would definitely hit the right card and then overtake her. Why didn't you do that?"

"Oh?"

Mo Yue tilted her head: "I don't understand what you mean."

“你没有写【44】，写了【40】。40的话，就必须是黑桃10梅花10方块10的10葫芦，也要搭两张7。”

Asakawa Riku pointed to the notes in his notebook:

“But you chose ‘7 of Spades 7 of Hearts’ instead of ‘7 of Clubs 7 of Diamonds’, so the suits of your 7s are exactly opposite.”

The result of the final game was as follows:

星羽——29——红心5梅花5方块5梅花7方块7，5葫芦。

末月——44（伪）——黑桃10梅花10方块10黑桃7红心7，10葫芦。

Mo Yue won the point by a narrow margin, but the result was 3-3, failing to make a miraculous comeback and ending in a draw.

But upon hearing his words, Mo Yue smiled:

"Lu, it seems you really think I'm a superhuman with the ability to predict the future. I was just unlucky and didn't run into one."

Bad luck? Can we really believe that explanation?

What she said makes a lot of sense. Asakawa Riku is questioning the process based on the result, which is inherently biased. After all, the two people in the competition don't have the same God's-eye view as he does.

Mistakes and loopholes are normal occurrences.

Asakawa Riku hesitated a bit, not only about the second question but also about the first one, but seeing Suezuki's indifferent expression, he figured it would be pointless to ask any further questions.

All he could say was, "You wait."

Then, he turned and went to the kitchen to prepare to fulfill his promise and make a fried rice with eggs.

Even if his cooking skills were terrible, he thought he could ask Xingyu to come and teach him, and he could learn step by step. It shouldn't be too bad, right?

Just as he took two steps, preparing to look for where Xingyu had run off to, he suddenly stopped.

……etc?

Asakawa Riku paused for a moment, then inexplicably took out his notebook. Instead of continuing to look at the last round of the game, he flipped back a few pages.

This simple turn of events left him stunned and astonished, almost causing him to cry out:

"...!"

He was looking at the record of the second round. At that time, Xingyu got the slip of paper with the number 8. Although the slip of paper with the number 8 was also small, it was not bad in the early stage. Theoretically, the optimal solution was AAAA4, four Aces. However, one Ace had already been used, so it was impossible to form four Aces. Therefore, he chose the second best option, "2 Hearts, 2 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, Ace of Clubs, Ace of Diamonds", which was a 2-gourd.

It was these two pieces of paper that finally allowed Asakawa Riku to capture the key inspiration.

Yes, in this round, A has three cards left: clubs, diamonds, and hearts, but Xingyu skipped hearts and chose the combination of "Ace of Clubs and Ace of Diamonds".

Asakawa Riku recalled that during intense and highly concentrated calculations, people would subconsciously act on instinct when performing mechanical tasks, much like "outsourcing" to save effort.

For example, in the third trial, "Homemade Rock-Paper-Scissors," once strategy and thought are involved, regular patterns tend to appear at the moment of throwing the punch.

Principal Komiya's "peeping hand" cheating was based on this principle.

This principle can also be applied to air poker games!

When Xingyu was faced with the choice of three Aces, she could have had three combinations, but she chose the combination of "Ace of Clubs and Ace of Diamonds".

This shows that she has this "subconscious habit".

In such a high-speed card counting process, it is already difficult to remember the remaining number and suit of cards. You also have to think about what card you can play next to make it bigger. Under such crazy amount of calculation, is it really possible for anyone to completely remember the record of the opponent's cards in every round? Just how difficult is it to do this kind of terrifying multi-threaded calculation?

No, Shinonome Suetsuki can definitely do it. Her "hyperthymesia" ability allows her to remember every subtle detail, including Hoshino's card-picking habits.

When Xingyu is assembling the gourd, if there is any extra space, she will subconsciously choose plum blossom or square patterns.

So, she knew perfectly well that Hoshino was going to play "7 of Clubs and 7 of Diamonds"!

—She deliberately avoided it!

The moment Asakawa Riku realized this, he was incredibly surprised. He slammed his laptop shut and turned away.

Staring at Higashion Suetsuki in the distance, the guy was still sitting in his chair, seemingly unaware of his gaze, and was resting with his eyes closed, lazily basking in the sun.

From the outside, you really can't tell that he has so much scheming and cunning.

However, Asakawa Riku could no longer deceive himself; he finally understood why he hadn't figured out the truth.

He had been thinking based on the premise that "Moyue wants to win two points in this round and achieve a comeback," so of course he couldn't figure out the truth.

—Because she had no intention of overtaking them.

—What she wanted was... a draw.

Shinonome Suetsuki had clearly grasped Hoshino's weakness and lifeline, but deliberately let it go and even deliberately avoided the result of "clashing cards", winning only one point.

If they only win by one point, the final score will be 3-3, resulting in a tie.

The motive was simple: their bet was that if Suetsuki lost, she would have to leave Asakawa Riku, and if Hoshino lost, she would also have to leave Asakawa Riku.

If it ends in a draw, neither side has to pay the bet, resulting in a "perfect ending" where no one gets hurt.

Generally speaking, there is no such thing as a tie in a best-of-five game. Perhaps Mo Yue even took advantage of the "penalty mechanism of winning two points at a time" and deliberately lost two points in the third game.

This woman... used every available mechanism to forcibly create a perfect ending that never existed!

What seemed like a thrilling gamble was actually part of her plan from the very beginning.

Asakawa Riku's fingertips trembled. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became, but the more surprised he became. In the end, he didn't even realize when a smile had appeared on his lips.

Too exaggerated?

Forget it, it's better not to think too much about this kind of monster. It's better to just make fried rice with eggs; that's better for your physical and mental health.

"Where exactly is this guy's limit...?"

Winter of Gods: Chapter 1 Yumiko Esaki

"Asakawa-kun, you need to come to the office immediately. There's an urgent request, and the lady says you absolutely must come!"

"Huh...? Is she the detective or am I? I'm just an assistant. Unless it's a matter of life and death, don't even think about making me work overtime."

"...She said she'd pay you overtime?"

"That won't do! I'm still in school. I'm not going to be lured in by a little money. I still have some self-respect, you know?"

"She said that once she heard the client's name, you would definitely come."

"Who else could it be... that woman from the Inspection Department again, outsourcing cases?"

"Asakawa-kun, I've actually heard of this name before, and I have a very strong impression of it... Her name is Ezaki Yumiko."

...

On his way to Shibuya, Asakawa Riku suddenly realized that his dream of being a good student was about to be shattered.

He skipped class again today. Although he had theoretically asked for leave, his test-taking instincts were kicking in with guilt, making him extremely regretful for not going to school.

When he asked Mr. Matsuyama for leave, he made up a random reason, but the teacher didn't investigate it and let him go just the same way.