Battler pays Gretel to go to the second round. (Pink Trigger, Favors -1)

"All right all right, enough!" Battler shouted, trying to break free of the witch shaking him. "You seem to have some conflicting feelings about it, but I'm not a guy who cares too much about money, either. Not when there's a hot babe with no pants on offering to dance for me, anyway! Let me have it, Gretel."

"... I definitely have 'conflicting feelings' about you calling me a 'hot babe,'" Gretel told him with an un-amused expression. Allowing Battler to remain seated, she took the silver credit card herself. She didn't have a place to put it, so she simply fidgeted with it in her hands as she sat on the edge of the stage. "Remember... There's something else we've got to do, too. Based on what that witch said."

Battler only raised an eyebrow, looking a bit impatient for the dance to continue.

"Idiot... Big Bro, you're supposed to call me 'Lil Sis,'" she reminded him, sulking with her head tilted down but her eyes looking forward into his and setting aside the lanyard. "Not like I want to, obviously... But I'm going to make you go to that final round, no matter what it takes. I'm your only ally here... Big Bro."

The young man looked into the eyes of the witch with a concerned expression. "Huh... Y-yeah, uh, I already have a cute little sister, so I dunno how into this I'm gonna be. This is, hm... more of a thing for like, old pervs who've gotta role-play to enjoy it, right?"

"Don't ask me." Gretel spoke coldly again, but I thought she was secretly calmed a bit by the fact that he also thought it was weird. "Just go with it, and try not to think about it. I'm... going to give you the second part of that dance, Big Bro." Trying to keep her expression as even as possible, but still burning with the kind of bright-red flush that might get a girl sent home with a fever, she wrapped her arms around Battler's neck, then brought her breasts close to his face, straddling her chubby, pale legs with their dark socks on either side of him and kicking off her shoes. "I heard rumors you were a breasts guy. I always wanted to punch those people in the face, but... You really are into them, huh? You don't have to keep staring at my shirt if you don't want to, Big Bro. You can... unbutton it a little, if you want to see them..." She succeeded in keeping her face even as she swayed her hips slightly to the music, occasionally brushing him with her legs, but she glanced to the side to avoid any possibility of making eye contact.

Battler nodded, still looking a little off-put by the erotic body of the witch in combination with the strange way she'd been made to refer to him. Nonetheless, he took up the offer and began unbuttoning her shirt. Instead of "a little bit," he unbuttoned it all the way to the stomach, so that even her belly button was visible. She might be charmingly plump in the thighs and hips, but her waist was slender.

She didn't protest, but I could see her eyebrows reverse tilt in a strange expression as she stiffened her lip. Between the opening of her shirt, her mesmerizing breasts were clad in a lacy green bikini top to match the bottom, rising and falling even as she worked to keep her breathing even. "Okay... Since I'm being so nice to you, Big Bro, I want something from you, too. I've got to know why you thought it was a good idea to come here alone, answering some strange letter, and then decided to go through with all of this instead of punching that masked guy in the gut and running for it."

"Hmm..." Battler's hands restlessly gripped the arms of his chair. He obviously wanted to start touching, but he knew he'd be lucky to get off with just an ear-ringing slap if he tried that. "I guess I thought this witch seemed kind of interesting? But, maybe even moreso... It might have been something conceited."

Gretel lowered herself onto his legs, carefully avoiding the erection in his pants. She continued a half-hearted dance of shifting her hips against his knees. "Conceited? What do you mean?"

"Well, I guess at first I was just curious. But then, I got to thinking... That old bastard of mine and all of his relatives think this night is about them, their problems and their money. Meanwhile, here's this crazy adventure set up just for me, taking place in the same mansion, and none of them know about it! I wouldn't feel like a man if I turned my back on it, kept my head down, and went back to the grind. Feels like there was a chance for something romantic, you know? Uh, Lil Sis."

His 'Lil Sis' frowned, as usual. "If you want my opinion, you're not being grateful for the situation you're in. What's so bad about your life, the time you get to spend with George and Jessica and Maria? With all of your aunts and uncles, and your parents? Why would you run head-first into a dangerous situation? What if something happened to you?"

"Heh." Battler gave another carefree grin. "If I end up dead tomorrow, I'm sure half of those guys would say 'Someone died? Oh? It's just Battler? Of course it's Battler!' That's just the way I am."

"Idiot... That's not how it is at all." Gretel grabbed his jacket again, but this time, she brought her face close to his, holding him so he couldn't escape contact. "There are people who care about you, dummy. Your family. I can't believe you're doing something as stupid and selfish as this without even thinking about them!"

"Easy, easy!" Battler pleaded, chuckling in a self-deprecating way. "I know we're calling each other Bro and Sis, but you don't have to act like you're actually my family! It's only making things weirder, y'know?"

"... You're definitely right about that." The red-haired witch placed one hand on the golden card still in the briefcase. "I shouldn't get carried away. And, actually... I'm not too upset you decided to choose this. Even though you're a hopeless idiot and a twisted pervert, a boob-crazy ingrate who hangs out with creepy women... I didn't hate getting to talk to you like this-"

Another hand came down over the hand that she'd placed on the card. It was the Golden Witch, who'd been waiting silently for some time now. "Ho! Getting ahead of ourselves, are we, Little Sister?" She stared into Gretel's eyes with transparent malevolence, her eyes wide and her teeth bared. "This is your Older Brother's decision to make, is it not? He might still choose the second game! He might not fall into your trap!"

"My trap?!" Gretel gasped, looking offended. "I'm trying to rescue him! You're the one trying to trap him!"

"It is plain for anyone with eyes to see what you're doing. This is the North Wind and the Sun, is it? You've acted cold to Battler this whole time in an attempt to build up this warm, irresistible character that he'd feel bad saying no to. But you still have that option, Battler! Don't forget, something exciting might be waiting for you in the second game... Won't you regret it if you give up that, and who knows how much money, for another round with this shady character? And, Gretel... From your standpoint, you can imagine what going further than this entails, riiiight? Is that something you're comfortable with giving your Older Brother? As his Little Sister?! Huuuh?!"

"I'm prepared to do what it takes to end this. Whatever it takes, ending this is all that matters to me now." Gretel swiped her hand free from Beatrice's, then placed both on Battler's shoulder, showing her resolve with her blue eyes. "You can do whatever you think is right, but, please: don't come this far and let the witch win in the end."

"Why does it feel like... I'm in the middle of something really dramatic...?" Battler couldn't even manage a laugh to turn it into a joke, his smile twitching at the corner as his mind raced to try and come up with a clever remark.

Beatrice, or Gretel... Only one of those witches would be granted the magic to make a miracle happen.