My Anime Senpai, Volume 2: The New Beginning

Chapter 6

Chapter XXVIII: Trump Card

          For one week, the Class 2-A students have been finally given ease from all the hard activities they endured, recently followed by their midterm exams. Since they have nothing to do on the weekends, Tengen suggests to Kota, Asahi, Enmei, Gin, and Hanako for a hangout. Knowing that some may be preoccupied with something, Enmei asks Tengen for the meeting place and time. He also wants to make sure if this is fixed. Tengen assures him that it is.

          Enmei goes out and goes to their meeting place. He waits at the bleacher and while he is waiting, Kota shows up. He then asks him if he has any updates from the others. Kota says,

"Asahi is busy, Gin might be in a bicycle match, and the two haven't replied yet."

"Oh Holy Balls! This is what I'm talking about. First, they made sure that the time and place is fixed and now, they didn't kept their word", says Enmei. Kota then says to him,

"Let them have their moment."

          About 30 minutes later, they finally arrive. Enmei getting annoyed, says,

"Oh finally you're both here."

          Tengen then tells them that they best be going. Knowing that something is up, Enmei tells Kota to back up a bit via hand signals.

"Bruh, let's get away from the cringe", he says while Kota laughs at this. They then go to café.

"How 'bout we play that famous card game?", Hanako suggests.

"Oh, it can be played online but it requires a purchase and we're all low on ecash", says Tengen.

"How 'bout we contribute? There's four of us", says Enmei.

"Make that five", as Gin shows up.

"Ok then. Operation Str-ICHI! is a go!", says Tengen.

          They go to the mall and found the game. After purchasing it, they then go to the arcade. They bump into Asahi, playing the same arcade game all day beating other players who played the other console. He joins Kota, Tengen, and Gin going to the claw machines where Enmei and Hanako are at. They try to fish-out a bundle of tickets in order to contribute for the prizes. Hanako tries to take a turn but gets a bad iron.

"Ah damn it! Why am I always the bad luck?", she asks.

"Maybe you really are", says Tengen to her. He adds,

"Though you might be unlucky in games but there's a game that even if you lose, you'll win and be lucky. You'll might be even lucky to find the one."

          Hanako laughs at this and tries to brush him off. Kota's try comes and he sweeps the others as he gets 4 bundles of tickets. The others try while Asahi has an ace up his sleeves. Having this experienced every time they went to an arcade in different places, he might have mastered this however, the pandemic put it to a stop. Asahi controls the lever with confidence saying,

"What Kota did is nothing. Just watch this! I got it."

          He gets to a pile but a sudden blurry vision gets him into a blind spot, making him to drop nothing while the whole gang laughs at this. They then go to the counter to exchange the tickets for prizes. Asahi brags about his total points he gathered in his arcade card and tells them that he'll salvage them if the amount won't reach any. They give the bundles to the cashier for the count but it didn't reach any prizes. Asahi looks into his wallet if he got his card but he didn't He gets the whole gang glaring at him with red eyes. As soon they begin to chase him, he apologizes to them.

          After that, they then go back to the café to play ICHI! before they all go home. They begin to stack, shuffle, and later distribute the cards to one another, best-of-three rounds. The turns of each players start in a circle which only reverses due to a certain special card. Enmei starts off with a normal move, while Asahi stacks in two normal cards of different colors. Hanako and Tengen also put cards of normal colors. Gin then asks them what're the basic rules of the game since he's new to this. As Enmei answers him, he helps him but he has nothing to put so he gets  another card. Enmei puts another card. Kota also begins to put a card.

           Seconds later, due to his experience, Enmei turns up the heat with an ace up of his sleeve. The gang gets dumbfounded by this move. Asahi then gives a lesser power card, which the curse passes unto Hanako, giving her to add a lot of cards into her stack. Tengen laughs at her, saying that she is indeed unlucky but she brushes him off. Gin fights them off with another power card but on the contrary, Kota gets crushed with additional cards. In just a snap, Enmei defeats them all with a decisive strategy, making them to give up all their cards. As Enmei wins, Kota asks him what technique he used. As soon as he explained to him the technique, they start round two.

          In this turn of events, Kota defeats them using Enmei's tactic. Before Enmei leaves, he praises Kota for using his technique. Minutes before they start the final round, a whisper suddenly bursts out from Kota's side,

"Yow, what're y'all doing?"

           This makes Kota to jump out of his chair expressively. It turns out to be Akiko. She then joins them to play the game. Knowing that he has somewhere to go, Asahi hits the road without saying goodbye to them. The game then goes down to five players, starting with Hanako putting down a normal card, followed by Tengen also putting another one. Gin also gives off a stack of three in which the game heats off since the others don't have that color but Akiko stacks her way in with a triple. As Kota is about to put a card in, Akiko teases him. Since Kota is distracted by this, he ends up putting a power card which leads him to defeat. Akiko laughs at his defeat while Kota looks terribly dumbfounded with this.

           After the match, Hanako asks,

"So the match is done, but who'll take it home?"

"Well, I think y'all have ICHI! already", says Kota.

"So, should we decide this , rock-paper-scissors then?", Tengen suggests. Best of three,

"One-Two, THREE!", at the final point, Kota comes out with three straight wins, therefore making him the owner of the game.

          After finalizing who will be keeping the cards, they then go home afterwards.