Synopsis: The games begin and Kaiji is at the brink of losing.

Tonegawa instructs the participants to open their envelopes. Inside it are three stars which will be attached to the plates they’re wearing. As they play the Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors, they will wager those stars. Once two persons want to play, they go into “Check”, preparing a single card each. Then into “Open” where the cards’ faces are revealed. If it’s a draw, none of them loses or gains a star but if someone wins, he will gain the opponent’s star. Contestants can freely choose their opponents and repeat the process. Cards that have been used will be discarded. They will be tallied by an electronic scoreboard. Since each person has four rocks, papers and scissors each and there are 103 participants, there are 412 cards of each kind. As long as one can maintain three stars regardless of the means he uses, he wins. However, one must use up all of their cards. Simply disposing it is not allowed. At the end of the game, those with fewer than three stars or those who have more but did not use all their stars, are ultimately lost.

Tonegawa then wishes the participants luck. As he leaves, Kaiji asks him what they will do with the money they borrowed. Tonegawa returns to the podium and replies to do as they wish. He said he will not answer any questions (though he actually did concerning the war funds). Someone else asks what will happen to them if they lose. Tonegawa maintains he will not answer questions. The participants start to become angry but Tonegawa is even more angry. He asks if the participants would do something differently if they knew what would happen. He can tell them that but there’s no way they cand confirm if it’s true. He says that about half of them will be able to get out of their muck. He tells them to win.

The games officially begin. Kaiji thinks that at first glance, there’s a 50% chance of winning but there should be some strategy to raise his chances. The first loser has then been decided. In less than ten minutes, he lost all of his stars. One by one, more losers are decided but they don’t look like they just lost a huge bet.

Funai comes and tell Kaiji he knows what he’s thinking. Kaiji asks him how he knew his name. Funai replies that Kaiji borrowed the upper limit right after him, it left an impression on him. He asks if Kaiji remembers his name. Kaiji does. Funai is happy but Kaiji is puzzled at his behavior.

Funai then invites Kaiji to team up. He says one needs a partner to survive the gamble. As longs as one gets a good partner, he is guaranteed to survive. Kaiji says it’s impossible. Funai then reminds him what to do to win, to use up all the cards and have three stars. He then says the point is to maintain the status quo. Any two can just team up and rig the game. They just have to do twelve draws in a row. In the end, all of their cards will be used up and they will still have their three stars.

Funai tells Kaiji that he is a repeater. There are also others in the ship that he’s seen on a previous cruise, Kaiji says it can’t be right. Funai then tells him that one can sell his extra stars. That’s what the money is for. He says he heard the losers will be taken on forced labor or used as guinea pigs for experimental drugs. Funai also reminds Kaiji that if they win, their debts will be cancelled.

Kaiji says he wants to but since he borrowed ten million, he will have to pay over four million in interest in the end. Only his debt of 3.85 million will be cancelled. Funai says Kaiji doesn’t understand it at all. The interest only grows in ten minute increments. If they end it quickly, there will be less interest. If they end it all in under 20 minutes, there will only be around 300,000 in interest.

Kaiji accepts Funai’s invitation. Funai instructs him that the order will be rock, scissors then paper. If they do it quickly, it won’t even take two minutes. They start to play. Kaiji thinks he’s saved. Everything goes fine for nine rounds but on the tenth, Kaiji shows a rock but Funai shows paper. Kaiji is puzzled. Funai tells him it was a mistake. He apologizes to Kaiji saying they have to cancel it out in the next round. He shows Kaiji a rock. Funai, however, took a star from Kaiji since it’s protocol. Kaiji then shows a paper but instead of showing his rock, Funai showed a scissor. Funai takes one more star.

Kaiji feels cheated. Funai tells him he’s been practicing ever since he got scheduled to get on the ship. He leaves but an enraged Kaiji follows after him. In only 20 minutes two of his stars has been scammed from him. Kaiji tries to grab his stars but the guards come and stop him. Kaiji explains what happened. Funai tells Kaiji that they were not friends to begin with. Kaiji was only his prey. One of the guards says there was no problem with what Funai did.

Kaiji slumps into a corner, crying and sinking into the deep pit of despair. He regretted trusting Funai. He realized that since before, he always let others decide for him. Kaiji thinks he’s hopeless. He sees someone falling into a trap but that person doesn’t realize it.

Kaiji then sees the person who had him cosign for his debts causing him to end up on the ship. Kaiji goes after Furuhata who goes inside the restroom. Kaiji follows and sees a depressing sight, inside were those who faced impending doom. Furuhata was one of them. He now has four cards and a star. Though he was better off than Kaiji, he was crying too.

Kaiji tells Furuhata to come. Furuhata apologizes. Kaiji tells him to go outside. He invites Furuhata to join forces. He then asks how much Furuhata borrowed. Furuhata replies he borrowed two million. Since Kaiji got ten million, they can buy more stars. Kaiji then realizes something. He tells Furuhata that they should go back to the restroom. They have to find someone with two stars and no cards. They find a person named Andou.

The three of them have a total of 14 million, four stars and five cards. Out of those cards, four are scissors, one is paper. Kaiji thinks they should join together and get nine stars.

Anyway, poor Kaiji. He was cheated but one good thing about him is that he doesn’t give up. I hope Furuhata or Andou wouldn’t cheap him too.

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