Hustle and bustle... It's a new day, but the same objectives for Archius. At least, in this establishment: a casino! Normally, it was the usual: make as much money as possible! Archius maintained a smile, hiding the fact that he didn't even want to touch anything here. Who knows what spy gear is littered around this place?!

From an initial glance, Archius found nothing, but he made sure to not get cocky with this. To make things more annoying for him, he's accompanied by Yuki and Nathaniel. The two of them were gawking all around the casino. Yuki said, "This place is even larger than I imagined!"

"Yes..." Archius sighed, pretending to be annoyed with her. "Who would have guessed that a casino for the rich and wealthy is THIS big?"

"I'm not... rich and wealthy..." Nathan quietly muttered to himself. Archius heard anyway and gave him a confident pat on the back. He took one glance around at the choking air of wealth around the place… Oh, there were even a few senators here.

Most were playing poker, seemingly purposefully… winning several times. Oh yeah, Archius thought, they must be here to launder or accept bribes. Makes sense, he thought, given how the others at their tables looked like the type to need a good bullet to the head.

"Not yet," Archius said, wholeheartedly giving Nathan a small bout of advice. Well, at least Archius thought he'd give it; makes sense for the version of him that these two know of to do that, so Archius did. He turned back to Yuki. "Now, some ground rules, no high-risk bets, Kazuki won't like that."

Yuki shrugged and rolled her head around. "Nuh-uh! How are we supposed to get any enjoyment out of this if we DON'T BET HIGH!"

She threw herself forward in her bright blue dress onto the seat of a roulette table. Oh... what the fuck?! Out of all the things that Archius wanted to do, she does roulette?! "What about poker?" suggested Archius. At least in Poker, Archius could try to rig the game in Yuki's favour, and make every move she makes a masterstroke to go down in poker history. Hell, even Blackjack! Archius can probably get some device to peer on the cards faced down, but roulette?

Hell no! Archius knew full well that Yuki was going to make a loss today. Nathaniel took his seat beside Yuki. "How does this work?" he asked.

Archius pointed at the various places along the roulette table. "You bet on a number or a set of numbers. If you win, you make a bank. If you don't you lose everything." At that harsh response, Nathaniel shivered.

"Oh..." he trailed off, leaning over to Yuki. "Hey, maybe we shouldn't play this..."

"No!" Yuki shot back, placing a finger on Nathaniel's lips to silence him. "We have to play big or we won't get our money's worth!"

"Don't you Kazuki's money's worth?" Archius asked, standing behind the two and ensuring that no sketchy individuals tried to plant anything on them. All three of them wore pretty extravagant clothes. Even if it was simple compared to the others, Archius had a bulletproof vest over a patterned polo shirt.

A literal bullet-proof vest, stylish! Nathan had what seemed to be handdowns of some sort... Blue, black and white. Calling it handdowns would be an insult to its quality, however. Must be from the Geminorum-Ryzaku household. Maybe it was Kazuki's old clothes or something? Yuki wore a bright and frilly blue dress, sparkling with rainbow colours along with a sash around her waist.

The game started, with Yuki placing everything on... red. Kazuki was not going to like this in the checking account, Archius thought. Archius knew the relationship between these two was... tenuous at best, so something like this might be the bolt that finally kills the beast.

Though, it's Kaz, money's not a problem - but the principle might be. "Humans... so annoying..." Archius grumbled to himself, closing his eyes for a moment. He opened to see that Yuki had placed EVERYTHING on red.

Every dime and standardi they brought.

"Woah?!" Archius pretended not to be pissed by chuckling. "All on red this early into the game?"

"Yeah! It's what they do in movies!" she said.

The rest of the people around the table were... to no surprise, chuckling to themselves - hiding their contempt as they betted against Yuki. Even the roulette operators were confused by a combined group of escorts strolling by - dressed to attract all the eyes of both sides of the spectrum.

Then, the wheel began to spin. Archius held his breath, knowing the result already. The other players knew it. The operator knew it too. Nathan was nervously awaiting for the answer, as Yuki was shifted left and right, bobbing up and down on her seat, attractin Nate's nervous glance. "We're... going to make it, right?"

"Yeah!"

And lo and behold, to no one's sur—Red won. A few glares were exchanged between a few older players and the operators. The operators cleared their throats, before checking the roulette table for any modifications, ones that they haven't done at least.

Their gawking faces confirmed it: this was real! Archius patted Nate and Yuki on the shoulders. "Nice fucking work, Yuki," he said. "You won! But... try to be more conservative this time, don't want to pull our luck too hard."

He was already noticing the glares of the players, their stuck-up attitudes, all really needing a good stabbing to prove themselves worthless on the scale of this... Republic.

Yuki, however, heeded absolutely NOTHING! She placed everything on EIGHT?! "Eight means wealth!" she shouted playfully. "We'll win it big time again!"

And here she goes... betting everything again.

"What... Yuki!" Nate started. "We already doubled everything, shouldn't we... do something else? Like... I don't know, maybe have dinner with Chloé and the rest or ummm..."

"I can call Noah over," Archius said, trying to tag along with Nathan's line of argument. They've won big time! It's time to haul ass before the manager or worse comes along. "We'll celebrate our earnings, ey?"

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"NO!" Yuki shouted, slamming her fists down on the table. "We'll be leaving once we've earned back TEN THOUSAND TIMES OUR INVESTMENT!" she said, with a bright grin. Neither Archius nor Nathan showed anything but content in their faces.

And just like that, the table spun again. Moment of truth, Archius thought... Sorry Kazuki, he failed! Archius awaited the gasps of envy from Yuki... But they didn't come? Archius opened his eyes, noticing the exact number that it had landed on: 8.

Oho!! Yuki! Did she rig this game beforehand?! My... Archius thought... Yuki is truly a bag of surprises, it seems! The rest of the table was in shock, as Yuki had quadrupled her initial earnings. "Ah... I love compound interest," she remarked.

"That's not compound interest... well..." Nathan second-guessed himself. "I guess it is, then?"

The ball was finally rolling, it seemed! Yuki won. Again and again. Again. Again! AGAIN!? She kept making the most absurd plays, but WON THEM ANYWAYS?! This must be whatever the Geminorum-Ryzakus are teaching their kids! A cutthroat businesswoman and a genius... It all makes sense now!

Even the machine operators were stunned, their faces pale as they stared lifelessly at the comedically growing pile of chips beside Yuki. All the while, she was chuckling and laughing. Everyone lost but her. Most of them left the casino in disgrace, not being clever enough to bite their pride and side with the stupid teenager over here.

Archius was cackling to himself, continually cheering on Yuki. And for what purpose would they even do any of this?! Archius had... actually nearly forgotten why he was here, to begin with! First of all: there were a lot of drunk rich people. Who knows what information he can harvest?

This was amazing, if anything, the manager will be here soon to kick Yuki out, but then there goes the kicker. Yuki is the daughter of the High Admiral and the Tech Genius - a relative of Theonar nobility... Which means that she is distantly related to Chloé.

The manager, whoever they are, must know that they must approach this with a sense of tact. Archius had originally planned to weasel his way in, use bribes and alcohol to get everyone's lips moving - but this was even better. And just on cue, a posh-looking man stepped into view, with a three-piece white suit, buttoned up and a beer belly.

In normal circumstances, he might look jolly, but he looked nervous and pissed at the same time. He gently dismissed the roulette operators with a glare, before taking a seat on the opposite end of the table. "My apologies, Miss Geminorum-Ryzaku, but... I must say we cannot have you continuing to play roulette as of now."

"HUH?! WHY?!" she shot back.

"It came to my attention that this table has... requires additional adjustments to fix some errors. Maintenance had forgotten about it, simple stuff. You may keep your winnings, of course. The error is on our side!" He reeked of lies with a smile between his teeth.

Wait... if he was lying about the errors, then was Yuki just that lucky? No! Of course not! Don't be stupid, Archius.

"Wuh... Alright... I guess I'll finally go to poker," she said. At that, the manager shivered and let off a small squeal.

"I'm sorry... Ma'am, but... our facilities may be closed to you for the foreseeable future," he said. "Well, I would not say that you are a cheater, ma'am, but it's company policy. I have no control over it."

Ah, the classic blame-the-company policy memo was used. As expected, Yuki grumbled, her blue eyes and scowling as her face went red. "CHEATER?! ME?! You dare to assume that I HAVE CHEATED?!" she made a massive scene, attracting more eyes and attention as she cradled the large mountain of chips she had.

"This is prepus...pos...posterous?" Yuki said. "YEAH! I will play what I deem to play, understood?"

With that, Yuki gave Nathan and a nod and the two left the table, commedically hauling the large amount of chips between the two. Archius stayed behind a bit. He looked to the manager, head in his hands at the table. Walking around, Archius introduced himself.

"Hey, tough night?" he asked. The manager nodded. "Sorry about my friend... but she really didn't cheat."

"Tch... try and convince my boss of that," he said with regret. "They're gonna kill me... especially if she keeps playing!"

"Hmm," Archius started, placing a finger on his chin. "You know, I might be able to convince her to leave. After all... we all have a bottom line, so to speak, and I think Yuki's just... doing this for the pride of doing it now. You really added some fuel to that fire, didn't you?"

He sighed and nodded. "You know Miss Geminorum?" he asked. "Please... I'll... I'll be in your debt if you save my establishment. All that climbing on a ladder of knives and this is how it ends? Dear no... Iris save me." How pathetic. Archius had a remedy, however.

"I'll convince her, alright," he said. "But not for free, of course, how about we make a deal?"

The man's eyes narrowed against Archius. It seemed the facade had come off completely, whilst Archius still maintained his'. "What?" he asked, placing both hands on the table. Archius noted that his watch had an uplink bleeper on it.

Archius sat down next to him. "Well... you see... I'm actually interested in getting into the casino business," Archius lied. "Well, I'm considering it. And I was wondering if I could have a good name here and there? I rub your back, and you can help me in the future. Maybe one day, we'll even be compatriots!"

The facade slid right back on as the manager smiled. "Why yes! It's a hard business to get into, let me tell you that! But passion is to die for, after all!"

Keep up the pleasantries, Archius thought... Just keep them up. "Yes! Of course! I'm also rather daunted, as you can see with yourself. I just want to know if I can have your name? After all, knowing people is half of business."

The man nodded with a firm smile. "Joshuo," he said. "Rather old name, I might say, but I was always said to be an old soul here and there."

Archius enthusiastically extended a hand out. "Archius!" he said, "A pleasure to meet you, Joshuo!" Joshuo bit the bait, and shook Archius' hand.

That was that, as Archius harvested whatever information he needed from the poor fellow with his ICAPAD. Ah... Amazing. With that, Archius left with a smile. He took a glance at the information he harvested... An auction? Well, it was a lead to something, he thought. Might as well do some recreational research whilst he was at it - or whatever Eliza called it.

Continuing back to Yuki, he tapped her on the shoulder whilst she was playing Poker. The mountain had grown even larger. Damn... Maybe she really was just that lucky. "Hey Yuki," Archius said, attracting her attention. "Let's go now, I don't think Kaz will like what we're doing anymore..."

"But... I... I wanted to earn it for him...?" Yuki tilted her head in confusion. Wait, did Yuki do all of this just to pay it back to Kazuki? That was, to say the least, probably the least 'Yuki' thing he could think of! But... then again, their relationship was complicated.

Yuki's blue eyes quivered. Then, Archius adapted his approach, patting her on the head gently, ensuring that he didn't tug or even get close to her twin-tails.

"He'll be happy with this much," Archius said. "Let's not drown him with money, alright? Right Nate?"

Nathan was immediately put on the spot and nodded his head furiously, before even realising what he was asked for. Yuki sighed and slowly nodded in a strangely calm fashion.

"Alright..." she trailed off, popping off the table and hauling all the chips. "We'll surprise him!" Now that was the attitude he was used to, Archius thought, watching Yuki flee off into the distance with all the chips - straight to the cash-out station.

It was an objective loss for the casino, not like Archius cared for that, but it was an objective success for him. A lead and Yuki is happy - which makes everyone else happy by virtue of her not being angry and pissy. Amazing...

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