32"Come on Shirou!" Illya whined from a few feet ahead of him down the street. "We're almost there, and if we're not there on time then we'll miss out on the best tables."
"I'm coming Illya. You just have to give your little brother some patience, he's had a very busy day and last night he was on closing shift at the Copenhagen." He called back, tugging at the collar of his shirt, ignoring the slight itching from the suit that she had forced him into. "I'm running on like 2 hours sleep here."
"And I'm in heels!" She called back while striding along the street. Her body was clad in a form fitting white dress with purple and red accenting, and her backside swayed back and forth with each step. It was quite distracracting to say the least. Shirou was still not used to the incredible body that his sister had grown into over the course of what had seemed like a single night. He must have been mistaken, but he had honestly thought she had somehow magically transformed that day when he first saw her tall and buxom body; no growth spurt would ever be able to pull that off.
She'd been out of the house a lot recently, many nights being spent at some undisclosed location, though apparently she had at least told their mother where she was going. Not that Irisviel had felt the need to share that information with him, instead content to just smile at him with a mixture of smugness and condescension, before sending him on his way with a hug or a pat on his head. That last one was particularly demeaning considering he was a few inches taller than the delicate woman, and so she had to reach up to do it.
Tonight however, he had managed to catch Illyasviel just as she was headed out the door with a large briefcase, and after a small confrontation about her safety and what exactly she thought she was doing wandering the city in such a provocative outfit, Irisviel had come along to solve their little dispute. "Why don't you take Shirou with you?" She had said, and neither of the two of them were willing to stand up to their mother when she laid down the law between them. So it was that he had been hastily forced into one of their deceased father's old suits and forced out of the door by a very impatient sibling.
He still didn't know where they were going. Illyasviel had been marvellously tight lipped on that fact, but it seemed to be somewhere in uptown Shinto given the direction they were travelling, and since they had crossed the Fuyuki bridge he had been pulled along on a very winding path through the urban jungle.
It was after Illya reached the corner of one such street and stopped underneath a streetlight that he finally got his first idea of where they were headed. Down the street was a building that he was certain he had never seen before, despite his many adventures through Fuyuki. It was covered in external floodlights, and was a marvel of brick and precisely carved marble, making it stand out from the modern aesthetic of the rest of the surrounding buildings. A pair of glass double doors acted as the entrance, with an overhang extending out above to provide some protection from rain and sunlight, and written upon that overhang was the apparent name of the establishment.
"The Mythic Chalice"
Illya gave him a quick elbow in the side, and he glanced down to see she had offered her arm for him to link with, and he had apparently been ignoring her. He offered a consoling smile at her, and she quickly glanced away with a light flush on her face, before taking off across the street towards the building, a few other people dressed similarly to the two of them also emerging from other side streets, all with the same seeming destination as the brother sister pair.
The double doors slid open automatically in front of them, and Shirou was immediately stunned by the grand and lavish interior. The lobby was huge and seemingly modelled after a Roman temple or palace. The floor was made of pristine marble and granite and the walls were similarly constructed, but turned into incredibly detailed mosaics and frescoes about 2 feet up from the floor. Statues of humans and other humanoid creatures, constructed of many different materials, from stone and marble to what looked like solid gold, were set back into several alcoves and posed in many different positions. Some appeared grand and imperial, others were more classical in appearance, and some looked truly lewd, highly detailed reproductions of human genitalia on open display to any who wished to look at them. The ceiling was decorated in much the same way as the walls, and from it hung chandeliers of gold and crystal, casting a bright glow across the entire room.
Two sets of stairs sat at either side of the room, leading up to a veranda up above from which anyone might be able to oversee the entire lobby, and Shirou could spy a few people already up there in elaborate suits and dresses, while holding glasses of various drinks in their hands. Set against the back wall was a long desk that appeared to be the reception, the entire thing being covered in gold and wine red, and a handful of receptionists sat behind the desk in uniforms coloured to fit the theme. Finally, on either side of the desk were two turnstyles leading through to another room beyond, but even these seemed to have had money poured into them, the entire mechanism made of solid gold.
All in all this casino showed off incredible wealth in its decorations and construction. Shirou would not be surprised to find out that this lobby alone was worth multiple millions. But casting a look around again, he found himself noticing something off about the entire place. Something about the sides of the room, where the stairs lead up to the higher floor.
He thought about it some more, and then cast his mind back momentarily to his first view of the building from the outside. And then it clicked. There was no way that a room this large and wide could fit into a building of the size it had appeared from the outside. Oh it had been large, but here inside the whole place was practically ginormous. You could be able to fit the entire schoolyard of Homurahara into just this lobby, with some room to spare, there was no way that this building could exist.
"Illya." He said firmly, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and turning her around to face him. "Is this place involved in magecraft?" His tone made sure to tell her that he would brook no dancing around the issue. She would answer, or she would be in big trouble.
Illya fidgeted under his gaze, her fingers twisting around each other in a nervous dance. "Yes." She whispered.
"Illya" He hissed at her, pulling her to the side and out of the way of the doors so anyone entering wouldn't have to divert around the two. "Kiritsugu gave his life to get us all out of the twilight world. What are you thinking diving back into it!?"
"Mom showed this place to me, she knows everything and gave me her blessing. Everything here is kept completely confidential, a geas contract enforced on every patron. I promise you, everything that happens here will stay here. We won't get pulled back in unless we let ourselves be."
"Are you sure about that? Can you promise me that?" He pressed, crouching down slightly to look her in the eye. She nodded. "Swear it to me. Swear it on Kiritsugu."
"I swear on our father. We will be fine." Her eyes were as solid as the marble that composed the floor. He stared into them intently, looking for any doubt, any hint of falsehood or uncertainty.
He found nothing.
"Fine." He let loose a sigh and straightened himself back out. "Show me what it was you have been doing.
"I will. First we need to get you signed up though." With that stated she turned, but turned back to look over her shoulder and offer out her hand to him. He took it, and Illya lead him over to the desk, approaching the receptionist on the far right, who looked up with a smile on her face.
"Miss Illyasviel, back again." She called out jovially as they approached. "And with a guest. Will he be joining us as a member, or under your own account?"
"A member." She replied back without hesitation. "This is my dear brother, Shirou Emiya, and tonight I shall be introducing him to the Casino and everything we can do here."
"Very good ma'am. Does that mean you shall be giving him his introduction yourself, or will you still require someone to talk him through it?"
"I think I should be able to manage it myself. We just need the paperwork and his membership coin."
"As you say." She then tapped away at something on her keyboard for a few moments, before grabbing a few pages of paper from a stack to her side, and walking over to a printer set in the back of the booth, into which she inserted the paper. It quickly whirred away, and she was soon coming back over with the stack of paper, now inscribed with a rather intricate looking contract. "Now sir, if you could please just look this over, and sign your agreement on the bottom of page 2, 5 and 9."
Shirou took the papers from the woman, and was swiftly handed over a pen to sign them with. He was just skimming over the first page when Illya spoke up. "Basically the run down is that this is a geass contract. It enforces a few things on everyone, and all members have to sign it. It basically holds you to all bets you make, specifies what the casino can do to you if you go too far into debt, and has a few clauses for the members who aren't involved in the magical community to make sure they don't go around spreading knowledge of magecraft. Just sign it and get your coin and we can move on."
He was somewhat hesitant to sign something without properly reading over all of it, but a quick skim did reveal it seemed to be just as Illya said, so he quickly signed in the specified places and hoped he wasn't making a mistake. He handed the papers back over, and the woman gave them a quick once over before feeding them into a scanner. Everything appeared to be fine, and she was quickly handing over a small novelty poker coin. On one side was the emblem of the casino, with its name written around it in cursive font, but turning it over revealed something he was slightly perturbed by. Staring up at him was his own face, engraved into the coin in some sort of cartoonish style, with his name written around it in much the same way the casino's had been on the other side, once in English around the top of the chip, and again in Kanji around the bottom.
"That there is basically your membership card. Make sure to bring it with you when you come or you won't be able to get in, and don't lose it. Inside is enchanted so you can summon it to you at any time, but out here it is just a normal poker chip, so don't lose it down a drain or something."
"Come on then Shirou, I did say we were on a time limit." Illya tugged him away from the desk over towards the turnstiles, which had a small coin slot built into them. He could figure out what he was supposed to do with that.
He pressed his chip into the small slot, and moved through the metal barrier to the other side. As he stepped into the room, his breath was stolen away for the second time that night, only just hearing the sound of his coin being dropped into a return box behind him. This room was elaborately and decadently outfitted as the lobby, but must have been 5 or 6 times the size, a truly enormous hall, and filled to the brim with gambling of all times. From slot machines to tables of poker and blackjack, to betting on chess, to other forms of gambling that Shirou didn't recognise, this was a gamblers paradise.
Here too there was a second floor up above. The gambling was occuring in one huge ground floor, but off to the two sides of the room were balconies on which people stood to drink and chat, or simply to observe, but he also saw a number of doors set into the walls behind. He caught sight of a woman in incredibly scanty dress leading a man into one of the rooms, him rapidly unbuttoning his shirt as he followed after her. So the upstairs rooms were for more private time. Okay then.
The upper floor balconies ended at the far end of the room, where they lead down into stairs back down to the main floor, but there was definitely something in that back wall. At the height of the second floor there was a large matt black sheet of glass set into that back wall, which Shirou recognised as mirrored glass, but could see no obvious way to reach. He stared more intently, scanning the back of the room for any nook or cranny where a set of stairs might be hidden away, and then he caught sight of it. A door quite different from the rest. It was set back into the corner, and was set slightly back into the wall so it disappeared partly from view, but it was also painted in a deep lacquered red.
"Impressive isn't it." Shirou was brought back to himself by Illya speaking from beside him, pressing his membership coin into his hand, and then wrapping her arm around his once again, leading him off through the great hall.
"Now the basics of this place are simple. You can bet literally anything you want, as can everyone else, and whoever wins gets it. Anything from simple money, up to magical secrets, property, or even less physical things like age or breast size." Shirou looked over at her at that, pointedly running his eyes up and down her much improved body, find particular points of purchase at her backside and breasts. Seeing this she scoffed. "Yes Shirou, I did in fact win this rather spectacular body here." She ran her free hand down the side of her dress, tracing her now curvy form. "And it was well worth it don't you think?"
He did not reply.
"Anyway." Ilyasviel continued. "That makes the rules rather obvious. Don't bet something you literally don't have. Don't try and cheat the casino, and always remember you can back out. Any bet you make, anything you may promise to the winner of a deal, you can still take it back until the results are revealed. Up until you show your hands in a poker game, you can still back out, but the moment the winner is revealed things are locked in, the magic of this place will hold you to your word. So don't do anything stupid."
They strode along a small path leading between a number of poker tables and a line of slot machines, Shirou getting to watch as one player seemed to win big in one round, and got a first person view of the guy's face smoothing over, wrinkles disappearing and his back straightening as years seemed to run off of him, while the opposite seemed to happen to his opponents, though to a lesser degree.
"Now of course when you are betting things of more abstract worth, not everyone is going to agree on how much that item is valued at. When the players do agree then there is no problem, but when they don't, then they can call on one of the Casino's Bunnies." She explained, gesturing over to the poker tables, each of them having a rather attractive girl clad in a bunny girl outfit as their dealers. "The bunnies run the open games and manage the place, but their primary role is to evaluate the worth of player's bets in the case that there is a disagreement. If a guy loses all his chips and wants to go on by betting his age or an inch or two of his cock, then the bunnies are the ones who can say what monetary value the offered bet has, and therefore how many chips his opponent would need to put up against it."
They turned another corner and were passing down yet another row of slot machines when Shirou caught sight of someone he thought he recognised, a woman clad in a red dress and with her brunette hair done up into two pigtails on either side of her head, and topped with small black bows. A familiar voice reached his ears as she desperately fed chips into her chosen slot.
"Just one more go, just one more go." She was muttering to herself as she inserted another 1k chip into the machine. "This time I'll win the jackpot and it will all be-"
The dials on the slot machined settled with a chime, and revealed that the woman had absolutely nothing. "Noooooooo!" She shouted up at the ceiling, shaking her arms in frustration. Then she dipped her hand into a purse of chips besides her, which Shirou could see from his position was running very close to empty. She took out another 1k chip and stared at it in her hand, turning it over and flipping it between her fingers like a coin trick.
"Just one more wouldn't hurt right?" She muttered to herself. "If I win then I get everything back with interest. Just one more is okay." She inserted the coin into the machine.
"Good luck Tohsaka." Illya called as they walked past, tossing a handful of 1k chips that she seemed to pull from nowhere into the other girls small supply. The brunette said nothing in return, her tunnel vision entirely contained to the rapidly spinning dials of the slot machine.
"Rin Tohsaka." Illya said to him as they walked away. "She has some of the worst luck you've ever seen. It's a good thing she sticks to the slots or someone would have claimed more than just her cash by now. She does always seems to get a good win just before she gets far enough into debt for the casino to step in though, so maybe I'm wrong about her luck."
They finally arrived at their seeming destination, a line of tables that were much more lavishly furnished than the others he had seen so far, and the stacks on the tables were all much taller than on the other tables as well. The whole area looked more high class, a number of fake windows set into the wall, with a view through onto what looked like a grand noble estate, with grand sweeping and well maintained lawns stretching out beyond and into the distance, while a bright summer sun shined down from above. Shirou didn't know if it was a purely fictional location, or he was really seeing somewhere else in the world through those glass portals.
"These are the high roller tables. I got permission to join these tables last week, and I've been doing pretty well off of it." Illya replied patting her briefcase. She led him over to the side, and set the briefcase up on the back of an empty couch, before popping it open. The inside was stuffed full of stacks of poker chips of various colours, and from the looks of them and the depth of the case itself, there was likely more than just that single layer.
Illya pried out a single stack in a plastic sheath and handed it over to Shirou. "That is about 250k. That should be more than enough to last you through the entire night even if you lose every hand. So If I leave you to your own devices, will you be okay meeting me back at the entrance by 1?"
Shirou swallowed, his mouth feeling incredibly dry at his sister handing him more money than he had ever handled in his life, and so casually at that. "Uhh. Yes. I should be fine. I think I'll just stand around and watch for a while though."
"That's perfectly fine." Illya replied, looking over to a clock on the wall which revealed the time as nearly 10:30. "I need to get going. If I'm not there at half past then I'll miss out on the biggest game of the night. If you get bored there is a bar and restaurant on the second floor. Now I really need to scram. See you later."
With that she jogged away towards a table near the end where a dealer bunny was just opening a fresh pack of cards, waving a goodbye behind her as she went. Shirou was left standing there for a few moments. He looked down at the stack of chips in her hands, and then cast his eyes around at the tables, utterly confused on what he was to do now. In the end, he took a deep breath, and proceed to do exactly what he had said he would, wandering off through the hall to find something to occupy his attention.
It was a few hours later that he found himself back where he had started, his stack of chips barely depleted at all, only dipped into to purchase a few drinks and a small snack to keep him going while he wandered through the rows. He had at one point gone back to where they had first seen Rin, but she had apparently moved on. He hoped that it was due to finally getting that Jackpot she had been chasing after, rather than because she had lost everything she had on her.
He once again surveyed the tables in front of him, finding Illya still at her table, and not obviously transformed in any way so far. He was debating whether he should head over and talk to her some more, before he suddenly heard a voice cry out from a table behind him. "Aha! I win the hand, and that is both of you cleaned out."
Turning around he saw a table of three individuals. One was a blond man dressed in a red suit and equipped with a cane, the second a redheaded girl that looked around the same age as him, though with the various magics demonstrated to exist within this place she could potentially be of any age.
The final member of their trio was a Casino Bunny, but one far more beautiful than any he had thus far seen. Her legs were clad in tight fitting material of an incredibly vibrant royal blue, the fishnet pattern woven into the material standing out quite visibly from the material. Her upper body was clad in a pure white material, but trimmed with gold, and appropriately mimicked the outfits most would think of when discussing bunny girls, but with some choice sections removed, specifically a thin strip that ran down from between her breasts to end just below her exposed navel. Around her neck was a white shirt collar, tied together with a novelty miniature blue tie adorned with a golden cross. Finally to complete the outfit was a long white stretch of fur, which was hung over her shoulders and then looped around her arms. All in all, she was an encapsulating sight if ever there was one.
It was however the redheaded girl who was the one who had made the declaration of victory, and with a quick scan of her cards he was able to confirm that she did indeed hold the winning hand, seemingly having succeeded in winning an all in by the state of the table in front of each player and the size of the pot in the middle. She herself was busy raking in the chips, moving the various stacks of chips to her side of the table, though finding some difficulty because of the sheer amount of them. The man swiftly excused himself with a thinly disguised grimace, and stormed away towards the exit, while the bunny seemed to be remaining around out of obligation to make sure that the redhead successfully collected all her winnings.
She managed to do so, and the bunny moved to leave as well, when she was brought up short by the redhead calling out to her. "Ah ah ah, my lovely bunny butt. You owe me a favor. A favor I can call in whenever and for whatever I want if I recall our terms correctly." The redhead's gaze turned lecherous and foul, not at all attempting to disguise the desire she held for the other woman's form, even drooling onto the table as she did so, her orange eyes wide and gaping. "I'm calling it in. You shall stay in for one more round."
"And bet what miss? I have lost my entire alloted supply." She spoke regally and with great patience and kindness, despite the quite horrific way she was being looked upon. But Shirou could see just the slightest hint of discomfort, the wrenching of her hands together behind her back being the biggest give away. They both had a clear idea of what the redhead would be demanding as her stake, and it was something that in any other circumstances the bunny would not be prepared to wager.
"Yourself of course."
The redhead's words were like the first nail in the coffin, or perhaps the completion of a noose, into which she was now asking that the bunny place her neck.
"Of course madam." The bunny replied, picking up the deck of cards they had been using, and beginning to shuffle it once again.
Shirou wanted to intervene, he wanted to stop this, but there was nothing he could do was there? That was the rules of this place. You were held to your word and you wagers.
"For your information, my value to the casino is currently evaluated at 230k."
That number struck Shirou's brain like a hammer striking a bell, sending an idea ringing through his head.
"That little?" The redhead replied inquisitively. "Why you must be almost all paid up. Soon your debt to the casino would be entirely settled. And what do you know, I have that amount just here. If you win this hand, you will have your freedom." The results of the opposite outcome were left unsaid.
"In that case." Shirou said, interjecting himself into the conversation like a shining knight coming to the damsel's rescue. "Would you be opposed to another participant in your little game? If it's only going to be one round, it shouldn't be a problem right?"
The redhead was taken aback. She turned to glare at him menacingly, obviously unhappy with the intrusion into what she planned as her triumph. It was therefore that the bunny girl got the first say in the matter. "So long as you have the ability to match the bet, you shall be permitted."
And like that he was in, swiftly sitting down at the table and pounding the stack of chips his sister had given to him down onto the surface. "The name is Shirou Emiya." He introduced himself, turning to the redheaded girl for a response, and offering his hand.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru." She replied curtly, giving his hand a hard shake accompanied by an enthusiastic squeeze.
"My name is Arturia Pendragon." Replied the blonde bunny as she dealt out the cards, two finding their way in front of each player.
"Arturia is it? That is such a wonderful name!" Ritsuka cried out before looking at her cards. Whatever it was she found there, she had a good poker face, and she leaned forward onto the table towards Arturia, her arms covering her cards.
Shirou checked his own cards, finding a 5 of Hearts and 7 of the same.
"We will now begin with the first round of betting." Arturia announced, turning towards Ritsuka, but the girl seemed to have a different idea in mind.
"We all know what it is I want, and Shirou here can match that, but I can raise higher than the both of you can match. So how about we make things fair, seeing as we are only playing a single round. You deal out the flop and the turn, we all place our bets, and then we finish things up with the river. Get everything done quickly and we can all go about our business." She turned her gaze to Shirou, knowing he was going to be the deciding voice in all of this. Arturia was bound to go along with the majority after all.
It was practically a no brainer. Ritsuka had been right that neither of them could match her if she decided to use the entirety of her current possessions. Arturia could only bet the lump sum of herself, and Shirou could manage just short of another 20k on top of that. Ritsuka however had just cleaned out two other players. Even if they were stacks of lower value chips, she still held the ability to outbid them both, and force them to make further wagers just to stay in the game. This was undeniably a move that benefited the two of them more than it did her. So why was she offering it?
"Alright." He said cautiously. "I'll agree to those terms."
With both of them in agreement, Arturia swiftly moved on to dealing out the four additional cards required. So it was that the three of them ended up being faced with the 6 of Hearts, 4 of Hearts, 6 of Diamonds, and 9 of Spades.
Arturia then turned back to Ritsuka. "I bet 230 thousand." She said immediately, leaning forwards to push her stacks of chips forwards into the very center of the table, and then laying her arms back down to cover her cards.
Shirou proceeded to call, but while the dealers eyes were on him, he swore he saw something shifting in his periphery, some tiny movement from Ritsuka. He tried to think nothing of it while Arturia herself called as well.
The final card was dealt.
"Arturia~~~" Their redheaded companion practically sang like a bird in the morning chorus. "Why don't we start with you showing off your cards?"
The woman despondently flipped her cards over to reveal an Ace of Clubs and a 10 of Diamonds. She had absolutely nothing, an Ace high the best that could be made.
Ritsuka's breathing became quick at the sight, and she rapidly licked her lips over and over, wetting them thoroughly as her breath came hot and fast. Her hand moved over one of her cards, flipping it over to show the 6 of Clubs. Then it moved to the next, turning it and revealing the sight that their poor dealer had been dreading. A 6 of Spades graced the table. Four of a kind.
"Hahahahahaha!" The girl cried out happily. "I've done it! I've done it at last!" She leaned back in her chair, tipping it slightly so she could lean back further and release her victory cries. Finally she uprighted herself and reached out across the table towards Arturia, beckoning her forwards with both arms. "Come here. Come to mama."
Arturia stood up and began to make her way around the table. "NO!" Ritsuka interjected. "I want you to crawl. You were bet against all of these chips. I want you to cross the table like them." The woman glanced around, looking towards Shirou and his still covered hand, before staring him directly in the eyes. She was begging him, pleading with him to save her even as she obeyed her orders and came to sit upon the table alongside all of the chips. She moved into the very centre of the table, and then stopped there.
"Wha? Come on, come over here already, I want my winnings!"
"There is still a hand yet in play. You are right that I have lost and shall be taken by the victor, but it has yet to be confirmed as you."
Ritsuka's eyes widened greatly, her pupils shrinking at the same time, like a cat who had just been given a healthy dosage of catnip.
All eyes settled on Shirou as he lifted up his cards, and then laid them down face up. All 6 eyes took in his 5 and his 7, and then turned to the 4 and 6 already showing, before they tracked towards the last card. A 5 of Clubs. He had lost.
The heartbreak on Arturia's face struck him directly to the core, while Ritsuka threw up her arms into the air in yet another grand celebration of her victory. When she did so… Was that?
Shirou was up in a moment and moving around the table. Arturia was just finishing her crawl across the table and was about to slink into Ritsuka's waiting lap when he reached his destination, and thrust out his hand at her, grabbing a hold of the redhead's left arm with his other. "Wait!"
"I am afraid that the rules of the casino are clear, I am now-"
"And what about if there is evidence of cheating?" Shirou asked, before pulling back his arm, and forcing his hand down the sleeve of the suddenly petrified Ritsuka. A moment later it emerged, holding a playing card in his grip. An Ace of Diamonds in fact.
"That was why she asked us to play the abridged way we did. If it had just been you two, she would have raised until you folded and automatically lost. But with me in the game there was luck involved. You literally couldn't wager anything more, but if I bet my age or my height, then I could have matched her, forced her to rely on the luck of the draw, I might have even won." He released the girl's arm and stepped backwards, but by now the bunny girl had definitely realised what was going on, and just what that meant. Her glare down at the redhead was terrifying in its intensity. "So she had you deal 4 cards first and then start the betting. So she knew what cards were in play, and what to swap in to get the best possible hand."
Finally he lifted up the two cards Ritsuka had laid onto the table. "One of these is from a different set. I don't know which or how to tell, but I promise you one is."
"The Diamond." Arturia replied, her eyes transforming, the pupils changing from black to green so light it was almost yellow. The slow turn she did as she returned her gaze to Ritsuka was worthy of horror films. "Ritsuka Fujimaru. You are hereby found guilty of cheating the casino. Your punishment shall be as described in your contract."
"B-b-b-but. I-I didn't. I-I wasn't. But I got so close?!" She announced, bursting into tears even as two other casino bunnies appeared behind her, grabbing onto her arms and hoisting her to her feet. "P-please! Arturia forgive me? Please make them stop!"
The crimson door opened and a fell chill ran through the entire hall, all conversation coming to a stop, not a soul daring to interrupt the sudden silence that came across everyone present.
The pair of bunnies carried Ritsuka over to the door, setting her down just before the doorway, where she cowered before the opening. From his position Shirou could see nothing beyond the very bottom step of a stairway, but Ritsuka herself was shivering.
"What's going on?" He whispered quietly to the bunny girl beside him.
"Is this your first time seeing it?" She asked back in response, though her eyesight never strayed from Ritsuka. "She has been invited to a meeting with the Owner. For a discussion."
"Then why is she so afraid?"
"There are only two people who have ever gone up those stairs and come back down. Kischer Zelretch Schweinorg and the Director of the Mage's Association. Every Bunny in this casino has gone up them at some point as well, but they never come back out that way. They just appear later, changed."
"Even you?"
"Oh yes. I remember when I fell into debt far enough for the casino to step in. I remember a bunny girl staring up at me, passing my sentence as I just did for her. And I remember the door opening. After that it skips. My next memory is of being the dealer of a black jack table."
Ritsuka took a few last deep and cloying breaths, casting one last look around the entire casino, finding every single face looking at her. And then she stepped inside.
Immediately the door closed with a great slam and warmth returned to the room. There was a moment of baited breath, before chatter and the sounds of play resumed, and the casino was once again as it had been, no sign that Ritsuka Fujimaru had ever been within the hall.
"So. What is it that you want of me...Master?"
Shirou sprang back, jumping away from the bunny girl in surprise and was met with the sight of her still sat on the table's edge, but now leaning forwards, her great cleavage spilled forwards and exposed to his gaze. She was biting her lip as she sat there looking up at him, her face otherwise a mixture of trepidation but also excitement.
"M-master?" He managed to stutter out.
"Why yes Master." Arturia replied, slinking off of the table and gesturing behind her to the table. "With Ritsuka disqualified, your pair of fives beats my own ace high. You win the pot. You are now the proud owner of 460k, as well as myself." She finished with a small bow, her breasts bouncing as she did so.
"B-but she was cheating. Doesn't that make the entire round invalid?"
"Not at all. The casino has dealt with Miss Fujimaru, and all of her assets shall be seized as recompense, but the amount that she bet in the game is still yours by right given that the cheating was only revealed after the results had been determined." She straightened upright and held a single finger up on her right hand. When she spoke, it sounded like she was she was reiting a moto from memory, or reading from a mental script. "All bets must be held to, regardless of circumstances."
"W-well if I am your Master, does that mean I can just give you freedom or something?" Shirou was very unhappy with the current situation. He had wanted to save one woman from a situation that she had unfortunately found herself in, and now he had turned into a slaver. Yes, he probably should have realised the possibility before he joined in with the game, but he should be excused for not thinking things through too greatly when he was trying to save a life!
The response he received in turn was not what he was expecting at all. Rather than happy, the Bunny looked practically affronted by his suggestion, her hand coming to rest atop her heart, though the size of her chest placing a still significant distance between the two organs. "You would throw me away so casually? And so soon after receiving me? I can think of no reason for such, unless I have unintentionally done something that displeases you."
"No no no. Nothing like that at all!" Shirou tried to insist, pressing forwards with his best attempts at damage control. "Just, wouldn't you like to be free, to be able to do things for yourself?"
"Not particularly. I spent a long time as a leader, someone who held the responsibility of others in my hands. I believe that time was beneficial for me, that it helped hone me into someone better, even if there are things about that time I would change if I could. I think it would only be right for me to offer you the same chance to improve in the same way, and in a situation where it is vastly less catastrophic should you make a poor decision."
"B-but."
"Master, if you are truly so insistent on getting rid of me, then the simple facts of the matter are that you must either lose me to someone else in another wager, or you pay the casino a lump sum of cash equal to the total of my debt to it at the time when I first began to work here. If I recall, that was about 360 billion."
"360 Billion! That's absurd." He cried in total disbelief. Then after a moment his mind thought back to the details of what had been said earlier before their game. "Wait, you said that you only had 230 thousand left to pay! How did you make that much money here, is the pay that good?"
"Not at all Master, the pay is around what you would expect for the position that we occupy, I have simply been working at this job for a very long time."
"It can't have been too long, you barely look older than twenty fiv-" He cut himself off when his mind caught up to his mouth. When age was literally a commodity, someone's appearance meant nothing.
"Twenty five, is that right?" Arturia replied, bringing her hand up to her mouth to cover it from view as she giggled at his response. "Then it would surprise you to discover that I am over 1500 years old?"
Shirou's mind shut down momentarily. 1500 years. That was completely absurd. This woman standing in front of him was older than most countries in the world, and yet was one of the most radiant and utterly beautiful people he had ever clasped eyes on in his life.
"Master." She said again, smiling at him even as she walked over to push his jaw back up. "It is not nice to obsess so much over a woman's age. Besides," she said with a pointed glance in her peripheries, "if you want to keep talking about personal details, perhaps we should move into a more private location."
Shirou nodded along absent mindedly, still trying to reconcile the incredibly attractive woman who he now literally owned, with the incredible revelation of her advanced age. With his assent given, Arturia wasted no time in taking him by the hand and leading him off through the great hall and towards one of the stairways that led up to the upper balcony and the private rooms that existed there. Within his fugue state, Shirou was having trouble so much as turning his head, and so couldn't even check if Illya was witness to his predicament or not, but on the other hand he did end up with his gaze fixed upon the swaying rear of his new acquisition, eyes locked onto the adorable bunny tail that was mounted atop the curves of her magnificent rump.
Arturia found an empty room quickly and quickly ushered him inside and over to a velvet couch set to one side, though it was relatively small compared to the large bed that dominated the opposite wall of the room. He sat there for a moment still lost in thought, and when Arturia passed him a glass of liquid he immediately attempted to throw it back.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" She said, grabbing ahold of the top of the glass before he could chug the whole thing down and spring his mind back into action. "That is 40% alcohol, I don't think you want to just down it like its water."
Shirou blinked, and then became aware of the tiny amount of drink that had already entered his mouth and was now running down his throat, leaving a hearty burning sensation as it went. He was soon in a fit of coughing. "I thought it was water." He managed to get out in between coughs, and Arturia smiled down at him in response, petting him lightly on the back as he caught his breath.
"These rooms are only stocked with alcoholic beverages I'm afraid. They are supposed to be for quick dalliances, not overnight stays." With her warning given, Arturia sat down directly next to him with her own drink in her hand. She was very close, he couldn't help but realise. So close that her legs were rubbing against his own in a very distracting manner. She had such fine legs, just the right amount of squish to them, that he was filled with the desire to just take ahold of them and try them out.
Shirou took another quick sip of his drink, taking a much more measured mouthful this time. He had very limited experience with alcohol beyond sake, despite Otoko's attempts to feist him into drinking. Just because he worked part time in a bar did not mean that he had to be some kind of lush. It also helped that Irisviel was always quite appreciative whenever he came home with free alcohol, and he did love to see his mother smiling.
He was still contemplating the fine pair of legs that he now found himself next to when he went to take another sip from his drink and yet found that it was empty. He blinked in confusion for a short time, before going to set his glass down on the couch next to him. He did not manage to however as Arturia took hold of the empty glass, and walked over to the other side of the room to put both it and her own glass away where they had been to begin with. Instead of coming back to the couch, she moved over to sit on the side of the bed, facing towards Shirou, and again leaning forwards to present a nice view of her cleavage to her new Master.
"Are you feeling better now Master?" She asked, crossing her legs as she did so, and Shirou got to see as they shaped to each other delightfully, the perfect mixture of flesh, muscle and fat to create a truly masterwork set of thighs, much like how the rest of her body.
"Y-yes, I think so." Shirou replied, pulling his eyes up from incredible thighs and up to look her in the face, blinking for an extended period as his gaze ghosted up over her waist and breasts. "But I still don't think that I'm comfortable with this whole thing. Owning a person, owning a woman… I don't think that is something I will be able to get used to any time soon, and I definitely don't want to lose you to someone else who might mistreat you, which basically just leaves Illy-ack!" He cut off with a squawk. "Oh god what is Illya going to think? She didn't even want to bring me along and now after one game I'm already a slave owner!"
"Master, come here." Arturia cut through his fretting, her voice stern but comforting, and made perfectly clear that she would allow for no disagreement on this subject. She held out her hands towards him from her position still sat on the bed's, and he stood and moved over towards her, letting his confusion fall to the wayside at her command, and just going along with whatever she intended.
As he came to stand before her, Arturia took both of his hands into her own and held them up between them. "Master. I trust you. I may not know you well, but I have met many different types of people in my time, and of them all you remind me most of all of one of my most loyal friends. And that is perhaps the greatest compliment I can give. So with that said, if you wish to take certain liberties with me." She said, bringing her hands to her large breasts, and pulling Shirou's own along with them, maneuvering to make sure that he got a large groping feel of both of the great masses. "Then I would not at all be opposed to it. I running on something of a 1500 year long dry spell after all."
Shirou stood for a few moments, once again having trouble processing yet another incredible detail to do with his new acquisition. He squeezed down on her breasts several times, roughly molesting them through the thin covering of her bunny uniform. Arturia moaned lightly, and again nibbled her lip at him, but this time she seemed much less willing to wait when Shirou proved himself unwilling to move any further beyond that.
"Oh honestly Master." She sighed exasperated, and proceeded to fall back onto the bed, her solid grip on his hands, which were still groping her chest, meant that he was pulled along with her, and a quick sweep of her legs had him falling onto the bed, ending up on hands and knees on top of her, and she brought her legs to loop around his waist for good measure. Finally releasing his hands, she her own up to her covered chest, and took ahold of the golden trim of her breasts cups, before pulling them down and away, leaving her huge breasts completely exposed, her cherry nipples standing tall in the air, and she gave them a few light tugs to make sure that they were standing out as far as they could go.
Shirou was absolutely intoxicated. To a minor degree from the drink, but much more by the absolutely stunning body that was now exposed before him. He had been trying to hold himself back, trying to remain a proper man, a proper hero, and give this stunning angelic visage the respect she deserved without lowering himself to some barbaric rape monster. But faced with this frank confession and the sight of the woman tugging on her own breasts like a farmer might milk a cow, his resistance broke.
He leaned in and immediately latched his lips around Arturia's left teat, nibbling and suckling upon it with incredible vigour, going to town on that wonderful breast and tasting deeply of its succulent flavour, while his tongue ran rings around the nipple, covering her entire areola in his saliva.
His hands were not staying still as this happened, his right one cupping her free breast and groping it heartily, roughly molesting the orb of flesh, molding and contorting it as he clamped, tugged, squeezed and massaged that outstanding chest. His other hand drifted downwards, fondling each small segment of his still bunny suit clad slave as it found its way down towards her crotch. With how thin the suit was, it was like sliding his hand over her silky smooth skin, the ivory epidermis just another part of her body that drove him absolutely insane. How thin the material was a great boon, as when he reached his destination, Shirou was able to precisely locate the blonde beauties' clitoris, and he gave it a gentle pinch. Arturia moaned in response, bringing up one of her hands and inserting her index finger into her mouth so that she was able to bite down on it and stifle her 'unladylike' response.
Oh no he couldn't have that. She had asked him to make use of her, and now she was trying to remove part of the pleasure by not letting him listen to the sexual song she made as he molested her healthy body. He tweaked her clit again, but this time much more harshly. Instead of a gentle nip on the little nub, he pinched it hard, squeezing it tightly between two fingers, though he made sure to keep his nails from digging into the sensitive bundle of flesh.
He was absolutely delighted to watch as the woman's eyes widened, dilating slightly as they went. She bit down harder on her finger, her teeth coming very close to breaking through her own skin. And then she gave up entirely, her arms splaying out to the side and grabbing on to each edge of the bed,her back arching underneath Shirou and pressing her chest up into his ministrations, and from her mouth was an incredible moan that sent shivering vibrations through the both of them. Just the sound of it was delightful and utterly erotic, and Shirou began to feel quite uncomfortable with how tightly his trousers were constraining against his hardened erection.
Shirou released his grasp on her breast and clit to reach down and begin to unbuckle his belt, and while he did so Arturia's moan slowly tapered off, her breathing still unsteady, but her eyes coming back into focus, and she quickly became aware of the shuffling that Shirou was doing down below. She brought one hand to the back of his head and stroked him gently with it, tilting his head up just slightly so that she could be sure he could see as she stared down at him in satisfaction, and then gave a comforting smile as she began to use her legs. Shirou had just managed to unbuckle and remove his belt and throw it away to the side when Arturia's legs around him transitioned downwards, and clasped tightly around his backside.
He sent her a questioning glance, but she simply smiled consolingly, and then began to shake and undulate her waist below him, her legs doing the same against his ass. Shirou swiftly became aware of its purpose. In the same instant she was both rubbing her still covered pussy up against his diamond hard dick, letting him know just how damp she had already gotten, but was also shimmying his trousers down over his ass and down over his legs, removing one of the last inhibitors between them now, and the exquisite pleasure that was to come.
He released her nipple from his mouth, a loud plop sound making it clear just how hard he had been sucking on her wonderful breast. "I think I love you." He said spontaneously, diving in towards her head with his own and almost smashing his mouth into hers for a kiss. He held back at just the last second, the two of their faces so close that their noses were touching against each other, and he stared intensely into her forest green eyes. They were a verdant whirlpool of emotions, but there was one very specific one that he could see breaking through all of the rest.
Calmly and haltingly, he turned his head onto an angle and leaned down, gently locking lips with the woman. For a moment she didn't respond, and he feared that he might have read things wrong, but then her mouth opened and her tongue came protruding out, finding his own on the precipice and instantly beginning an intimate dance of love and dominance that found its way into every corner of both of their mouths.
For the next minute their bodies stilled, the only movement being that of their tongues as the two lovers shared their newly discovered feelings for each other, indulging in the simple pleasure of each other's company, and that of their tonsil tussling.
Finally they separated, both of them desperate for breath but having pushed through their bodies warnings until the very last moment, so they could continue to show their affection for each other. Shirou panted heavily from above, while looking down lovingly at the woman pinned below him. Arturia was not much better, her breathing deep and in great gulps, but the thing that drew his attention far more was the flush that had overtaken her features, the first blush he had seen her have in the time they had known each other. It was a true marvel, combining incredible eroticism and adorable cuteness into a single expression.
"Master." She forced out between gasping breaths. "I cannot give you my virginity." She continued, looping her arms around his shoulders in a great hug. "But, I promise you here and now, I shall give to you my everything else. So please. Throw away your worries and restraint, and just take it."
"Arturia." He responded, breathing just as heavily as he matched her eyes with his own. Then he thought a little better of it. "Slave." Beginning again, he called her by her new title possessively, but also affectionately, letting her know that he had finally accepted her in the way she had wanted from the beginning. She shivered with arousal in response, and a blinding smile split her face. "I think I shall."
He immediately moved his hands down to her covered crotch, tearing at the outfit and moving it aside, and throwing his underwear down his leg, letting his proud shaft stand tall. Arturia delighted at the sensation, a tiny dribble of hot pre dripping down onto her smooth shaven crotch, and she stared up at him smugly, daring him to dive in and claim his prize.
She shouldn't have challenged him. His hands nuzzled under her and found their way onto the great globes of her ass, taking two great handfuls of ivory cheeks, and bodily lifted her up, shoving her crotch onto his dick as she went. Arturia had barely long enough for her expression to change to minor confusion before his incredible dick was carving its way into her cunt, acting like a battering ram as it dug a hole through the long vacated love tunnel and came to a stop just a millimetre short of impacting against her cervix.
In one fell swoop, Shirou had gone balls deep into the woman, without moving a single inch, instead treating the woman, who was much larger than him in both width and height, like a doll that he could manhandle in any way he saw fit. And judging by the expression that it invoked onto her facial features, Arturia was having the time of her life.
But he wasn't about to stop there. She had just promised him everything, and it was his intention to claim just that, and so with the assistance of gravity he let her fall from his dick until just the last inch of it remained buried inside of her, and then heaved her up once again, impaling her nubile and utterly fantastic form upon his conquering pole.
And on it went, Arturia been thrown around as he utterly abused her cunt, mauled her tits and indulged in her oral affection. Over and over and over he plowed forwards, hoping to somehow surpass his physical limits and plant a kiss upon the entrance to her womb, treating it as the final frontier and his many thrusts becoming mission after mission to break through and conquer it, as he had conquered the rest of her.
On and on it went, and Arturia, millenia out of practice, could do nothing but sag back like a huge human puddle as she was molested and toyed with, her whole body becoming the play thing of her rough manhandling master, and if that was the case then she could safely say that she was the happiest puddle that had ever existed.
Even as he became rougher and rougher, Arturia indulged in the treatment, the light pain only serving to heighten the pleasure of their animalistic rutting, their rabbit in heat approach to sex, that both agreed was the very height of enjoyment.
Even as they continued for hours, Shirou spraying her innards full of hot, sticky semen time and time again, ever adding to the cocktail conglomeration of juices which squelched out from around his dick as it drove again and again towards her inner depths, always with the futile goal of finally penetrating her inner core.
Of course as two living breathing humans they both tired, and with Shirou as the more active participant it was he who began to flag first, but that merely proved the need to move to a different venue, their current location of the bed very thoroughly soiled with their collective juices, and the hot scent of their musk mingling in the air, tainting this bed and room forever with the evidence of their dalliance.
With the bed no longer viable, it was not a signal to them to stop however. No, from there they moved around the room, fucking on everything in sight. Arturia was taken from behind over the coffee table, and both dreamed that they had a camera that they could put underneath it, to look up and watch through the glass pane and film the rapid undulation of her heaving tits, pressed down into the table and then sliding back and forth over its surface.
And then they changed locations again, moving over to on the small array of drinks, and Shirou sat upon a bar stool while Arturia fucked herself up and down upon his lap, sliding herself up his mighty pole, while pouring beverages into the natural cup of her cleavage, allowing Shirou to drink from the pool of alcohol as she descended, and then sending shimmering droplets dancing through the air as she rose once again, Shirou's tongue continuing to lap away at her nipples when she rose too far to drink from.
But even with all of the determination in the world, it meant nothing when their bodies simply could not keep up any longer. And so it was that Shirou found himself once again sat in the velvet couch, while Arturia knelt between his legs and gently bounced her titanic tits up and down his cock, her tongue lashing out to lap and tickle at the tip each time it emerged. Shirou's right hand rested upon the top of her head, tickling lightly at the spots where her bunny ears emerged from her hairline, his left further down the side of it and lightly scratching behind her human ears.
In truth his cock was well and truly at its end for the night, all of his ball batter spent over the last few hours, and it was sheer willpower, combined with the incredible eroticism of his slave and her actions, that were still keeping him standing despite that fact. Arturia herself seemed to just be luxuriating in the taste of his dick, and the heat of it in within her cleavage, buried so deep that it was almost pressed against her breastbone.
Shirou sank back further into the couch, relaxing as he was pleasured by his adoring slave, and drinking in her presence in front of him. It was so amazing that she thought he was worthy of her, but if she was willing to believe that, then it was the least he could do to show the same belief in her. "You're so beautiful you know that? I wouldn't get rid of you even for a trillion dollars."
"That's a relief." She said leaning back with a smile on her face. "So I have nothing to worry about if you end up playing on the high roller tables again." She teased. Something about that line caught in his mind, stirring his mental mindscape like a thick soup, and drawing forth something he had completely forgotten. He turned to look at the clock mounted on the wall, and read the hands to identify the current time as 1:20 in the morning.
"Oh fuck. Illya!" He shouted in sudden realisation.
It took a few minutes more before he could explain the whole situation to Arturia and for the both of them to get cleaned up sufficiently enough to get out the door, Arturia grabbing his other winnings on the way out. From there the two made their way out to the lobby, where they ran into a very irate Illyasviel, now holding a second briefcase in addition to the one she had arrived with.
She saw him on the approach, and also saw her eyes move to and linger upon Arturia following just behind him. The way her expression changed from relief, to confusion and then to anger might have been adorable had she still been her smaller self, but now that she was a full grown adult, Shirou was very well aware of the shitstorm he had just accidentally invited.
"You're late!" She shouted at him, throwing her arms up in the air. "I got so worried that you'd have done something stupid. But apparently not, you weren't being stupid, you were just being completely irresponsible! And what is this?" She demanded, angrily gesturing towards his new bunny. "Did you honestly spend this whole time just running after some cottontail?"
"Illya it's not like that. I got into a poker game over near the high roller tables and there was this really sketchy girl trying to win Arturia. So I stepped in, and I ended up winning. You can have the money you gave me back by the way." He said, taking the stacks of chips from Arturia and offering them to Illya.
"You got involved in a game with someone's entire life on the line? And you could afford to get involved with just that?" Illyasviel did not look like she believed him, nor did she look impressed. Instead there was an undercurrent of desperation in her words. "Please tell me you didn't end up betting anything else."
"I was approaching the very end of my tenure here, so my debt was incredibly low. That meant Master was able to win me for practically no risk at all." Arturia bowed politely to his sister, but Illya's eyes seemed to see nothing but her breasts jiggling.
"Well I will tell you this now bunny." She spat out the word like the most horrific of insults. "If you endorse that sort of behaviour, if you get him into trouble, or if you do anything at all that might reflect badly on my Brother." She paused dramatically, her nostrils flaring and her hair rising up behind her like the tails of some great beast. "I will shred you. I will pick you apart piece by piece until I could stuff what is left of you into a glass marble."
"I give you my most sincere assurance. I will do nothing that might endanger my Master." Arturia said, stepping forwards in a clear refusal to be cowed before his sister's anger, and behind her he could swear he could see the ghostly outline of a huge lion crouched, jaws open wide and waiting to pounce.
As the sparks seemed to fly between the two, neither willing to give an inch, Shirou couldn't help but wonder what his mother's response to this whole situation would be. If Illya's reaction was this bad, then Irisviel would either ask for a threesome or destroy the city trying to kill his new slave.