Kakegurui Twin

 So, for the letter K in my challenge, I took a little gamble...

 

 

Because it's the spin-off from the very good gambling based anime that is next on the to watch list.

 

Taking place before the main series, it follows the arrival of transfer student Mary Saotome at the Hyakkaou academy, and how she is plunged into the high stakes gambling culture of the school.  She quickly gets the hang of the system, as she decides to get the donation together to free Tsuzura, whom she knew from before, out of her house-pet, or mitten, status.

 

 

Quickly drawing attention from the Student Council, she gets her own gambling den, but is recruited by one of the Council members, a boy named Aoi, to overthrow Council president Kirari.   To get the money back from Aoi, she must enter a coupling game, but there a betrayer is among her group.  It seems her friend Tsuzura is the traitor, but as the game goes in the second round and winnings can be made big time, she turns the tables on the real traitor amongst them.

She is invited to join the council of Full Bloom, a group that wants to overthrow the student council.  But Sakura, the fiancee of Aoi, challenges her to an entrance exam to make sure she is worth of his attention.  In a treasure hunt game, they both seemingly find the treasure and are playing it out with a game of Dice Nim.  But Mary tries to cheat, which is not forbidden, only to be outsmarted by Sakura.

However, she had seen through the game setup, and had her friends find the real treasure box instead, the dice game being only a distraction to win time.  She is allowed to enter Full Bloom, but seeing what kind of person Aoi is, she turns down his offer, bound to make her own way at the Academy...

A nice prequel spin-off, and it is quite special to see a still uncorrupted Mary Saotome and her ideals at work, as by the main series we all know she changed by the ordeals she must face between these series...