Mary’s debt-free now, meaning she (along with Ryouta) is one of the rare few who have gone from being “livestock” to being regular students again. They are free from bullying, and as we can see some of Mary’s tormentors are clearly hoping she’ll let their past treatment of her slide. Mary, however, is not yet willing to forgive the Student Council for how they treated her with their stupid Life Plan contract.
Mary reveals to Ryouta that Yumeko still hasn’t paid back her debt and left her livestock status yet – she wants to continue gambling. More importantly, she wants to challenge the Student Council president for an “official” match. This scares Ryouta shitless, while Mary just thinks it’s insane.
Members of the Student Council get together to discuss recent events, and more is revealed via the Student Council (SC) President’s background check into Yumeko. We learn that Yumeko has only one living relative, an older sister, but she is currently hospitalized in a local hospital’s “special ward.” So perhaps Yumeko’s sister is mentally unbalanced somehow? Or she has some kind of “special ability”? Either way, Yumeko’s family has a lot of money at their disposal, so that’s how Yumeko is able to make outrageous bets and carry a large debt load without worrying about it.
The student-who-dresses-like-a-dog, Runa Yomozuki, reveals to the council what Mary has already realized: Yumeko indeed wants to gamble against the SC President herself. This news pushes Midari Ikishima over the edge and she rushes out of the room to find Yumeko, convinced that the SC President will rip Yumeko to shreds during a match. Midari doesn’t want to protect Yumeko; rather it seems she wants Yumeko “for herself.” Could Midari be attracted to Yumeko, even though they’ve only met once before? (Then again this IS anime…)
By this point in the episode, Yumeko has met up with Ryouta and she asks him to take her to the Student Council room so she can officially challenge the president. Elsewhere Mary’s old “friends” walk with her in the hallway, and we see that she’s approached by someone whom we can assume is the SC President. At the same time, Midari encounters Ryouta and Yumeko in another hallway.
The SC President invites Mary to tea, and we see later that the President has been impressed Mary’s actions and new change of fortune. She invites Mary to join the Student Council but Mary rejects the offer, which… “agitates” the President. She doesn’t understand why Mary would turn down such an offer.
Meanwhile Midari has arrested both Yumeko and Ryouta, and brought them to a dungeon-like area of the school’s basement, and man whoever let Midari have the ability to “arrest” people should be shot. Midari reveals that the school had these special interrogation rooms built, and given by their current state it seems they are not used very often. Both rooms are connected only by video cameras and special monitors.
Midari proposes a gambling game for Yumeko: with Ryouta as the dealer, the two girls will use ESP cards to try to match their cards with Ryouta’s. The 
gamble will involve using loaded guns that they have each loaded and tossed in a bin. For every point more that they score over their opponent, the winner can take a shot at the other. So for example if Midari were to get 2 cards correct (2 points) and Yumeko were to get 3 cards correct (3 points), then Yumeko would pick one of two guns at random and take one shot at Midari. And then because Yumeko imposes a few rules of her own, Midari adds one more to the game: if one person shoots and fires a blank, the other person can take a shot. Using my previous example this means if Yumeko were to take a shot at Midari, and there was no bullet, Midari would get to take the gun and fire a shot at Yumeko. It’s obvious that firing guns and using weapons is what arouses Midari, and this crazy chick will literally do just about anything in order to get her fix.
Ryouta’s panicking as he tries to figure out what Yumeko meant about showing her a “sign”, but he has no way of knowing if she was trying to pull a bluff over Midari or whether Yumeko actually wanted him to create a sign for her. The situation goes from bad to worse as Midari loads her gun full with six bullets – there is a very real chance that one of the girls will not walk away from the match alive.
The first set of cards is flipped over and Midari has 1 point over Yumeko, allowing her to take one shot. As Midari prepares to pull the trigger she gets more and more riled up, as if she were being sexually stimulated by a partner. Yumeko coldly warns Midari that it wouldn’t be a good idea to fire the gun and Midari hesitates before ultimately ignoring Yumeko’s advice. The episode ends just as Midari’s finger squeezes the trigger.
My thoughts: Wow, this was definitely a very suspenseful and informative episode! We learned a little about Yumeko’s history, which makes me wonder if her sister will make an appearance at some point. (I haven’t read the manga either, so if this happens later in the series I apologize for not knowing.) At least we know now that Yumeko’s ultimate goal is to face off against the Student Council president – maybe she wants to be head of the council?
The whole match with Midari is just one big adrenaline fix. I absolutely do not like Midari, even as I simultaneously admire her for being a unique character, one I cannot recall having ever seen in another series before. Kakegurui really takes psychology and dials it all the way up to 13.
I’m definitely excited for the next episode! Will both girls return to classes in one piece??