Sure enough, the HP pin has one last trick in store.

Meanwhile, in an alley between the casino and the hotel, a half-dressed Shuichi Saihara had just been unceremoniously ejected from the building, and was in the process of hurriedly tying his belt and buttoning up his dress shirt, while doing his best to fight back tears.

“T-this can’t be happening to me…” He pulled her scarlet panties off of his face and slumped to the ground, defeated. “No… no, no no… how could I be so stupid? Goddammit!”

He turned around and slammed his fist into the metal door he’d been thrown out minutes before, leaving a small but visible dent in its grungy surface. Had the young man been in a less emotional state of mind, he might have registered the pain that was usually associated with punching solid objects, but all he felt at the moment was an overwhelming mix of guilt, anger, and fear. Guilt for letting himself get so carried away by his success that he engaged in such incalculably risky behavior; anger at the temptress who likely exploited his inexperience and foolhardiness to take everything he’d spent years of his life earning; and fear for what this horrible turn of events would mean for his life and that he had no idea how he could move forward and recover from this.

“Oh man, what am I gonna do…” His imagination began to spiral, thoughts of losing his job and home flashed into his mind, the his insides twisted as he imagined having to explain the news to Maki and Mukuro, or his parents, and the guilt he would feel if he had to ask them for money just to get by as he figured out how to build back up from nothing. “Would they even respect me if they found out? How would I even bring it up? And what if they offered to try and help support me? Would it even be right of me to accept that, knowing what kind of burden it would place on them? Aaghhh, fuck! It’s all my own stupid fault!” He once again slammed his fist into the door, his slightly-bruised hand finally triggering enough of a pain response to snap him back into the moment.

“I… um… okay. Deep breaths, Saihara, deep breaths. L-let’s think about this for a second.” He panted as he tried his best to calm down. He wracked his mind, thinking about his financial responsibilities from a standpoint of status. “Let’s see. I pay for my apartment yearly, so that’s not coming up for more than half a year. Provided I can keep my job, I shouldn’t have to worry about having enough to cover that, as long as I don’t go spending like a madman. What else… what else… I’ve got plenty of food in my fridge, so I should be fine as far as, y’know, staying alive goes. But paying for gas is gonna be rough, and my car’s insurance payment is due by the end of the month… ah! My car! Oh crap!” The black-haired boy leapt to his feet as he remembered what got him into this predicament in the first place.

“Shoot, how on earth am I gonna afford to get home? Whether I wait for the bus or not, I’ll still have to pay to get my car from the towing company, and then I’ve gotta get it brought here or to my house…” He scratched his head and began to pace back and forth, trying with all his might to figure out a way to solve the first of many problems. He dug into his pocket, trying to fish out his phone to check the number of the towing company he’d noted earlier. Instead, however, his hand landed on a small scrap of paper, which he promptly pulled out and checked; it was the one that Kirumi had jotted down her personal phone number on. Realization and shame slowly dawned upon him.

He gulped. “Well… it might be the best chance I have at getting out of this, as much as it means admitting to my boss that I practically just threw away everything she’d just given to me for my birthday…”

Pulling out his cell phone, he began punching in her number with great trepidation, and pressed the ‘call’ button. He closed his eyes and prayed that Ms. Tojo would pick up the phone at whatever ungodly hour of the morning it was right now.

The phone rang for what felt like an eternity, before he heard a click and a quiet voice spoke, sounding tired and slightly annoyed: “This is Kirumi Tojo. Who is this?”

“He-hello, Ms. Tojo, it’s ah, Shuichi. Shuichi Saihara. I’m really, really sorry to call you so late at night, but I’ve got a problem. Well uh, several problems…” he stammered, trying to think of how best to phrase what he was going to tell her.

“Shuichi? My word, I can’t say I was expecting this to be how you used my phone number for the first time.” Her tone of voice softened from one of minor irritation to one of slight concern. “If you’re calling me this early in the morning then I imagine it must be something serious. What is it I can do for you, exactly?”

“W-w-well, my car got towed from the office parking lot this afternoon. I don’t think I was parked illegally or anything, it must have been some kind of mistake. Then I took the wrong bus to get home and… it’s a really long story. Is… there any chance you could get in touch with the towing company and um…” he paused, unsure if he was right to ask such a thing of his boss, despite their relationship. “Come and pick me up? I’m miles away from my home without any way of getting back. There’s a lot more to tell you but… I would rather explain it in person.”

“Very well. Can you give me the number of the towing company? I’m afraid I don’t know it off the top of my head. I’ll pay to get your car out for the time being; if you think it was wrongly impounded then you will need to file a dispute with them yourself at a later time.” she replied.

Shuichi read off the number from the note app on his phone, after which his boss responded, “Right, thank you. Fortunately they will probably have someone monitoring the impound at all times, so once I’ve managed to sort that out, I will be on my way. Where are you right now?” she asked.

“The Versailles Casino Resort, out in the desert,” he stated, and heard a pause on the other end of the line.

“That is a rather peculiar place to find yourself stranded. I am happy to serve you in any way I can, of course; but in exchange, if I might be so bold, when I get there I want to hear your ‘long story’ that explains it. Both as your employer and your servant, I can make the best recommendations and offer the best assistance when I am fully apprised of the situation. Would those terms be acceptable?” Shuichi could hear the inquisitiveness in Kirumi’s voice as she spoke.

“Yeah. It’s only fair, I suppose… A-anyway, my car is a red MTS 20XX convertible. You’ll probably need my insurance and driver’s license number, but finding the car itself shouldn’t be hard. Oh, and there should be an extra pair of keys in the glove compartment for you to use too.”

“Understood. If I require those details I will call you again. For now, please remain in a convenient place, and I will let you know when I am about to arrive. I expect I should be there within an hour,” Kirumi instructed. “Take care, Shuichi.”

“Thanks Kirumi. I really, really appreciate it.” Shuichi hung up his phone and let out a long sigh as he went to sit down on the sidewalk curb. There, he sat back and just looked up at the night sky, watching the stars twinkle tantalizingly like out-of-reach diamonds above him.

The time was around 2 AM; Shuichi had been idling for a while, pacing back and forth between the front of the casino, the entrance to the hotel, and the alleyway, earning himself mildly puzzled glances from the small handful of patrons passing between the two buildings via the sidewalk. He made sure to retrieve his briefcase from the lobby inside a few minutes beforehand, and thankfully he didn’t get immediately thrown back out. He was also grateful that his business suit had plenty of layers: it wasn’t terribly cold, but the prolonged time sitting out in the night air was certainly far from pleasant. Then, he heard the telltale sounds of a V8 engine rumbling down the lone road to the casino. Sure enough, Kirumi was there in her business suit, driving his car through the lonely streets and stopping right next to him.

“It is good to see you are alright, Mr. Saihara,” his boss greeted as she put the car into park. “Given your description of the situation and your location, I was afraid that I might find you worse-for-wear.”

“Yeah, don’t worry; the only thing that’s been bruised is my pride… and my bank account,” Shuuichi replied shamefully as he walked up to her.

“I’m guessing that’s part of why you didn’t bother just calling a taxi,” Kirumi said as she reached over and opened the passenger-side door, her voice neither judging nor sympathetic. “Are you ready to head back to town?”

“Yeah, let’s get going.” Shuichi reached his hand toward the door but stopped himself at the last second as he suddenly remembered something. “Actually, give me just a second. There’s something I need to do first.”

Turning around, Shuichi turned back toward the alleyway that he was thrown out into between the hotel and the casino. There, he headed over to the dumpster that sat there, and dug into his pocket. Grabbing ahold of the lucky charm Nagito had given him the previous day, he pulled it out and examined it in the dim light of the casino’s neon sign that bled into the alley.

“Good luck, huh? Hope always wins in the end? Yeah, right.” With a flourish, he chucked the pin as hard as he could into the dumpster, hearing it clang loudly as it rebounded against the thick steel. “Good riddance… I’m not going to rely on luck like that ever again!”

As he turned to leave, a glint of light underneath the dumpster caught his eye and caused him to stop. Turning back around and inspecting closer, he could just barely make out some kind of metal object underneath the dumpster. Approaching it - and plugging his nose - he peered underneath the garbage receptacle and found what appeared to be a gray metal suitcase. Curious, he pulled it out and undid the fasteners. Lifting the lid, his mouth fell agape with shock.

Inside the suitcase was money. Not just a little money, either; rows and columns of 10,000 yen notes, stacked to the brim of the case, as much as could conceivably fit inside it. He couldn’t help but attempt to count the bills. “J-just one stack is 500 notes, and there’s like… four rows and five columns… holy shit…” The total came out to 100,000,000 yen: the same exact amount of money he’d just lost in the gamble, and twice as much as he’d originally had in his bank account. “What… the hell is going on, today? Is today my lucky day after all?”

He peered into the dumpster next, to see if he could spot his lucky charm amongst the refuse and junk. Sadly, it had completely disappeared into the mess. Shuichi shrugged his shoulders, closed up the briefcase, and carried it with him out of the alley.

He returned to his trademark red convertible, and tossed both briefcases in the trunk, and approached the driver.

“Would you like to drive, or should I?” she simply asked.

“I’ll drive, it’s enough that I made you pay whatever fee they charged to get my car out of the lot and drove down to get me at this ghastly hour.” he said.

“Very well. May I ask why you have two briefcases?” she asked, slightly puzzled.

“Ah, umm… just my stuff from work. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to take home with me. Especially some of those reports you wanted me to compile,” he lied, doing his best to sound convincing.

His boss smiled slightly. “Oh, I understand. I appreciate how promptly you have gotten to work on that assignment.” She shifted in her seat, straddling over the center console and plopping down in the passenger’s chair, as Shuichi climbed behind the wheel, the seat still very warm beneath him.

He put the car in gear and stepped on the gas, the car slowly rolling away from a place he wasn’t soon going to forget. He drove for a few minutes in silence, until the casino and hotel were simply bright specks in his rear-view mirror. Then, he sighed. “Hahhhh… okay. So, this is gonna take some explaining, and you’re… probably not gonna like what you hear.”

“...and that about sums it up. I’ve lost a ton of money, and I’m potentially indebted to the casino owner for the rest of my life. All thanks to a stupid lucky charm and my own foolishness,” he spoke bitterly. “What the hell am I going to do now?”

He glanced over at the woman in his passenger seat, the moonlight reflecting gently off of her hair as it blew in the wind while they drove. Kirumi had a pensive look on her face. Finally, after a few moments of nothing but silence and road noise, she spoke.

“I am, of course, disappointed that you were so reckless with not only the money I gifted you for your birthday, but your own savings as well. But… if your work as an employee says anything about how you manage yourself in your personal life, then I expect that most of your financial affairs are kept in good order. If you were to make a habit of this sort of occurrence, it would undoubtedly result in an investigation from our HR department, but I get the distinct impression that this isn’t a mistake you will be making again. I suppose… that these things happen in the spur of the moment sometimes, Shuichi, and it truly was extraordinary circumstances that caused this to occur. So with all that in mind, I am not opposed to trying to help you back on your feet, provided you are earnest and responsible in your own efforts.”

Shuichi sat there quietly, taking in all she had said. He was relieved that she wasn’t going to judge him too harshly, but that did nothing to alleviate the embarrassment and guilt he felt at being in the situation at all. He spoke up: “Thank you, Kirumi. I am… really grateful to know someone like you. And despite my situation, unless things get really dire, I’m still going to insist that you don’t give me any more monetary gifts. I’ve already wasted enough of your money, both what you’ve given me personally and from my salary. If there’s one thing I don’t want to do right now, it’s place any more burden on the people I love.”

He heard a small gasp. Taking his eyes off the road for another moment, he saw that Kirumi was covering her mouth with her hand, a look of mild surprise on her face. It was subtle, but given how stoic she usually was this small flinch was actually quite noticeable to Shuichi.

“Was it… something I said?” Shuichi thought to himself before he blushed as he remembered the last word in his previous sentence. He continued: “Er, well… I know there isn’t exactly a lot of romance between us, but I don’t think that necessarily means I can’t still love you anyways. In fact, there’s a lot of people I love. People who I’ve… honestly probably let down by doing this. But that’s all the more reason why I’ve just got to… figure this out. It’s bad enough that I’m going to be needing support from those around me; I’m not going to disappoint them any further by relying on them more than I need to.” Shuichi pondered aloud.

Kirumi let out a quiet laugh; still dignified, but more emotional than he’d heard from her before. “Shuichi, for just a moment I felt like I could see a small reflection of myself in your attitude: devotion to those who you depend on and who depend on you in turn. It is a truly noble and selfless mindset. Though you may find that despite your best efforts, your friends and loved ones will try their hardest to help out, precisely because of that attitude.”

“Heh, yeah. I can think of a couple people who I’d really appreciate the advice of once I get the courage up to tell them about this whole predicament I’m in.” The boy’s thoughts went to Maki and Mukuro, whom he hoped weren’t too worried about him skipping out on practice. Checking his messages, he saw that their response to his text when he’d first arrived at the casino had gotten the terse reply of “Okay.”: probably Maki’s response. It was followed a few hours later by a message from Mukuro: “Workout went great, I beat Maki in sparring again. Is everything okay?”

He grimaced. “How exactly do I say ‘I’m penniless and potentially knocked up the gambling queen of Japan’ without making my two best friends panic…?” he thought to himself.

Deciding that it would probably be smart to explain the situation in person, he replied with the vague “I’ve been better, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”

His partner looked over, her gaze hardening. “You really should know better than to use your phone while driving. I realize the road is straight and there is no one around, but that does not change the danger.”

“S-sorry, my mistake. I was just checking to make sure that my friends were doing okay,” he swiftly apologized. “By the way… I know you said that you wanted to spend more time with me personally, but I’m guessing that this wasn’t actually what you had in mind.”

“Indeed, Shuichi. But life certainly seems to unfold in mysterious ways when you are involved, Mr. Saihara,” his boss replied.

The two of them chuckled, and the pair sped off into the night, the bright city lights slowly rolling into view.

"You know, I don't think she ever told me her name," Shuichi realized out loud.

"Whose name?" Kirumi asked him.

"Celeste– er, Celestia Ludenberg. She never told me what her real name was…" he replied.

Back at the casino, a shadowy figure walked down the alleyway towards the dumpster. Glancing around to see if anyone was in the vicinity, they knelt down and peered underneath the large metal-walled container, searching. After spending a few moments inspecting the entire area and coming up empty-handed, they reached into their pocket, pulling out an old-fashioned flip phone. Pressing a button on the keypad, the phone rang for a few seconds before a near-silent click indicated an answer.

“It’s not here,” a female voice spoke into the phone.

“What do you mean ‘it’s not here’? There’s only one dumpster in the alley, right?” a youthful but gruff man’s voice spoke from the other end of the line.

“Correct. But the briefcase is not here. No sign of it at all.”

The man’s voice swore loudly from the other side. “God fucking damn it! There’s going to be hell to pay for this! Bring in whatever sorry bastard was supposed to make the dropoff. I don’t care what clan he’s from, he’s answering to me for making us look like fools. If he doesn’t have the money, then find out who does. But keep it discrete for now.”

“Understood.” The shadowy figure snapped the phone shut, then emerged from the alleyway and into the moonlight, her silver hair shining in the night.

“I shall not fail you, young master.”