Fraud at the Pachinko Parlor!?

"Hey, Komori-san! Can you make a copy of this for me?"

"Okay!"

"Oh, Komori-san, sorry to bother you, but could you also take some tea to the conference room?"

"Sure, I'll do it."

My name is Hanako Komori, and I'm a 32-year-old dispatch worker at a major food company. My monthly take-home pay is a meager 180,000 JPY, and my job mostly consists of menial tasks, which is stressful!

To blow off steam, I play pachinko on my days off.

"Today's my day off."

Since yesterday was payday, I'm going to play the 4-JPY pachinko!

When I have some extra money, I play the 4-JPY pachinko, and when I'm low on funds, I stick to the 1-JPY pachinko.

"What the!? Today's just not my day! I'm not hitting anything at all!"

My wallet is getting thinner by the minute...

If I keep losing like this, I'll end up with more stress than when I started.

"At this rate, I'll spend all my living expenses for the month. I should just go home..."

I need to go home and rethink my strategy...

And so, I headed back home to devise a new plan.

"That's it! I've got it!

I'll use the pachinko balls from the 1-JPY machines to play the 4-JPY ones. If it works, my profits will quadruple!

"This might actually work... After all, the balls are the same size..."

Alright! Let's give it a shot!

And so, on my next day off, I decided to put my plan into action...

Executing the Plan

On the day of the plan...

First, I played the 1-JPY pachinko and, once I had a decent number of balls, I discreetly put them into my bag.

All that was left to do now was head to the 4-JPY pachinko floor and use the balls I had collected.

I sat down at a 4-JPY pachinko machine and started playing with the balls from my bag.

"Nice! It's working! My hunch was right! Now to hit the jackpot!"

I played with intense focus...

And then...

An employee approached me.

"Excuse me, ma'am, may I have a word?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Are you playing with balls from the 1-JPY pachinko machines?"

"Huh? Isn't this the 1-JPY pachinko section?"

"No, this is the 4-JPY pachinko floor."

"Oh, is that so...?"

I pretended to be clueless.

"There's been a malfunction with this machine, so could you please come with me to the office?"

"Okay..."

I was escorted straight to the office.

The staff member seemed quite upset.

"It's a problem when people bring 1-JPY pachinko balls to play on the 4-JPY machines..."

"How was I supposed to know this was a 4-JPY pachinko machine? It's not my fault!"

"We get a lot of customers who try to make excuses like that... We're always keeping an eye out."

Apparently, when you use 1-JPY pachinko balls on a 4-JPY machine, it triggers a ball detection system, alerting the office with an alarm.

(Figures... Someone must have tried this before, and they already had a countermeasure in place...)

After this incident, I was banned from the pachinko parlor, meaning I could never go back.

(Guess I'll have to find another place to play...)

But is there another way to pull this off?

Revising the Plan

I kept thinking, trying to come up with a better plan...

And then, an idea struck me!

"That's it! Since I can play 4-JPY pachinko with 1-JPY balls, I just need to hit the jackpot before the employees notice and then leave!"

Even if I get caught, the worst that'll happen is another ban, so no big deal...

Plus, if I go with a large group, they might not even notice!

With this in mind, I called some of my girlfriends who also enjoyed pachinko.

However, only two of them were available.

We planned to meet up in front of the pachinko parlor on the next day off and go in together...

And so, on the day of the plan...

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

"You didn't wait, did you?"

"No, not at all."

"Hey, Hanako, are you sure we can really play 4-JPY pachinko with 1-JPY balls?"

"Yeah, I tried it myself, and it worked just fine."

"If that's true, we're going to make a killing!"

"For sure!"

My friends were excited and in high spirits.

We agreed that we'd try to win quickly and then make a run for it before any employees noticed. With three of us, we figured at least one of us might be able to escape unnoticed.

If we got away with it, lucky us!

"Let's go in!"

We entered the pachinko parlor together.

Following our plan, we first sat down at the 1-JPY pachinko machines.

After playing for a while, the three of us scooped up the balls and put them into our bags, then headed to the 4-JPY pachinko floor.

Now, the moment of truth—using the 1-JPY balls on the 4-JPY machines!

"Wow, it's true, Hanako! We can play!"

"Told you so!"

"This is amazing! I can't believe we're playing 4-JPY pachinko with 1-JPY balls!"

"Hahaha!"

(We need to win fast and get out of here before any employees notice...)

However, the staff was quicker than we expected...

Just a few minutes after we started playing, an employee approached us.

"Excuse me, ladies, may I have a moment of your time?"

"Huh?"

"The machine has detected an abnormality, so we need to ask you to come to the office for verification."

(Oh no... We've been spotted by the staff so soon...)

And so, we were escorted by the employee to the office.

(Well, at least we'll probably just get banned again. It'll probably end with a stern warning.)

That's what I thought...

Arrest

But it wasn't that simple.

The staff member mentioned calling the police.

"You're calling the police?"

"Yes, in cases like this, we are required to notify the police."

"But... that seems a bit extreme..."

"When someone blatantly brings pachinko balls from one type of machine to another, we can't just let it slide."

"Wait a minute! We thought this was a 1-JPY pachinko machine! We didn't know!"

"The 1-JPY and 4-JPY pachinko sections are clearly separated. There's no way you could have made a mistake."

"Hanako, do something! This isn't what you said would happen!"

"I-I'm sorry..."

(Oh no... I never imagined it would come to this—involving the police. But if we explain that we mistook the machines, surely they'll understand...)

That's what I thought...

But...

When the police officers arrived, we were arrested.

"Wait, you're arresting us on suspicion of fraud?"

"Yes, please come with us to the station. The fact that all three of you were simultaneously moving between machines with different rates, carrying pachinko balls, clearly indicates a planned and malicious intent."

"But... that's..."

I was taken to the police station along with my friends.

We were locked up in a detention cell, and interrogations followed day after day.

I worried about being charged with fraud...

(Sigh... I never should have tried to play 4-JPY pachinko with 1-JPY balls... What's going to happen to me now...?)