RECAP OF HORRIBLE, UNBALANCED, SHITTY, UNNAMED CARD GAME!

Huzzah!

The game uses a standard fifty two card deck, and each player starts with five cards in their hand. The rest of the deck is tucked away until later.

Starting with player one, the two players take turns revealing one of their cards to each other. After the second player lays down their card, then both player one and player two must up their bet if they want to continue the game. This could easily lead to a situation of chicken where both players are trying to psych their opponents and betting higher and higher.

But how are cards scored? The only thing that matters are the points associated with the cards, and it's fairly straight forward. The two of hearts is worth two, the seven of diamonds is worth seven, etc. The only notable aspect to this is that the jacks are worth eleven, the queens are worth twelve, and the kings are worth thirteen. Aces in this case count as a one, and nothing else.

Of course, the game would be boring if it was so simple, so how can you win if your hand is lower than your opponent's? The only thing that determines a winning hand is player two, who decides whether or not the lowest score or the highest score wins. He does when both players are down to two cards. When down to this amount of cards, you also need to take the deck back out of hiding and reveal all of its cards except for two.

In essence, you will be put into a situation where there are only six cards that have left to be revealed in the game. Assuming you're one of the players, then this would mean that there are two cards of the possible four that your opponent has to have. From the second player's perspective, it's a pretty nice deal depending on how you interpret the rules...

In this game, Yorokobi has taken the place of player one and Takumi has taken the place of player two. Yorokobi has bet his own ID card while Takumi bet the card of another student, Arata Abe, which he apparently just had laying around his room. Just now, Yorokobi got around having to bet something else by fulfilling an immediate favor to Takumi: simply just calling Izanami on the phone.

RECAP OVER

As the time passed waiting for Izanami to move up to his room, Takumi realized just how boring Yorokobi really was. Several moments of silence had passed as he stared with discontent at Yorokobi's meek figure.

The wimp of a man had nothing to say, but he never would, Takumi knew that. He knew that Yorokobi's favorite flavor of ice cream would be rocky road. He knew that Yorokobi's favorite drink in the summertime would be a chilled glass of lemonade. He knew that if he had to choose between a blue box and a red box, Yorokobi would always pick the blue box first. Nothing about this opponent of his was interesting, subversive, or otherwise creative. It was completely irritating.

Noticing Takumi's sour expression, Yorokobi tried to speak, sadly succeeding in the process. "So, uh... You haven't bet anything yet. What are you going to put down?" It turned out to be a disappointingly predictable question.

"Just be patient," Takumi folded his cards closer together with a delicate motion. "Don't worry, I didn't forget. I'll bet something before you have to play another card, don't worry your little mediocre sheeple head."

A few more seconds passed with an annoying silence before a pounding came from the door. It was frenzied.

"Would you mind answering that? I promise I won't peek at your cards." He forced a smile to Yorokobi, momentarily masking his lack of interest. He didn't have a reason to look at those cards anyway, he had a good idea of what they were just by looking at the way that Yorokobi had organized his hand.

Somewhat hesitantly, Yorokobi got up and trailed to the entrance of the room to open the door. Just as Takumi had predicted, Izanami had arrived. Just as Yorokobi had feared however, Izanami also seemed to be incredibly pissed.

"Give me an explanation," she demanded as she pushed herself past the brewer without a second thought. Though it originally seemed like she was talking to Yorokobi, she quickly turned her attention onto the smug red haired man peering at her.

"Explanation," Takumi sarcastically remarked.

Pretending to still be relevant to the conversation, Yorokobi followed the aqua haired menace. "It was just part of the game I was playing with him," he pleaded. "He said that I could just call you instead of betting anything else!"

That was enough to stop her march, and enough to draw her attention back to him. "What? And you just did it!? What the hell sort of idiot are you!?"

Not entirely sure how to react to the sudden provocation, Yorokobi shook in place. "I didn't have anything else to bet! I already bet my own ID card, and it's not like I have anyone else's! I'm just doing the best I can here," he defended. "I don't even know why you're upset in the first place, Izanami."

Gritting her teeth, she glared between him and Takumi. "... Fine, I guess we're doing this now. I'm throwing you under the bus later though when-"

"When Ethan reports you to the school faculty for spying on him in the kitchen?" Takumi dryly cut in, holding back a yawn. "Yes, yes, you're very dramatic, aren't you? I'm very intimidated, you've overthrown the patriarchy, blah, blah, blah. Do you have anything a bit more original to come up with? I'm a tad bored right now."

Izanami and Yorokobi both stared back at him with disbelief, though presumably for different reasons.

"Whatever," Izanami dismissed before Yorokobi could ask what the hell was going on. "I'll take over for Yorokobi, just tell me the rules."

"Oh?" Takumi's eyes tilted with interest. "You're taking over for him? I don't recall mentioning anything about that, I just told him to call you, plain and simple. Did you plan this or something?" He knew that they obviously wouldn't have, but he was nice enough to at least give them the thought.

Stumbling a little, Yorokobi rushed back to his seat. "We didn't! And I'm not gonna just let her take it either."

"Excuse me?" Izanami shot him a glare as she stepped closer. "You dragged me up here and I'm not even playing?"

Yorokobi took his cards back into his hands. "This is still my game with him. You coming up here was just part of that for some reason. Hell, you didn't even have to come here, not that it matters what you did I guess." He glanced behind him to peer at her. "Besides, didn't you say that you wanted me to go against Takumi because he could read you too well?"

Izanami was silent but clearly irritated behind narrowed eyes.

"I know you don't like relying on other people and all that, but just trust me on this one."

Mildly impressed, Takumi nodded. "As much as I hate to say it, I agree with Yorokobi. No one has the right to take away someone's spot in a game without permission, after all. If you're that excited to lose too, Izanami, there's always next game!" He gave a cocky grin. "For now though, I recommend sitting off to the side."

With a grumble, she stepped aside and looked over at the table from her spot on the wall. "Fine, for now. What are you even playing, anyway?"

"Doesn't really have a name." Takumi danced the cards held in his fingers. "We made it up on the spot."

"Basically," Yorokobi continued, "we just keep showing each other our cards one by one, and we score them by their numbers. On player one's turn, that's me by the way, we both have to put down a bet or else we have to fold."

"This continues until we both have two cards. After that, the entire deck is shown except for two other cards," Takumi gestured to the deck on the side of the table. "At that point, then the second player decides whether or not a low score or a high score wins the game. Right now, we both have sixes on the table, so it's pretty even."

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of." Izanami stared at their set up. "That's just a game of card counting on the second player's side. This is stupidly unbalanced. Why would either of you agree to this?"

Takumi faked a yawn. "Don't judge someone else's decision making, love. I'd like to get back to playing against your codependent friend here before I age another eighteen years."

"First of all, he's not my friend-" she attempted to interject.

"Speaking of," Yorokobi cut Izanami off in a way that Takumi hadn't quite expected. It was rare to see such direct action from him. "You still haven't put down that bet. Which ID card are you putting down?"

Reminding himself to stay careful, Takumi mulled over his next words with a smile. "Hm? Who said anything about me betting an ID card? All I said was that I would bet something. I never said what it was going to be, did I?"

Yorokobi opened his mouth to speak, but found little to say. All he could do was narrow his eyes and give back a dirty look. There was something amusing about how defiant the green saucer eyes stared at Takumi.

It was so entertaining that Takumi decided to test the waters. He wanted to see how far he could take the pathetic morsel. "Very well then, I did promise to bet though, right?" He took a card out from his hand. "I'll bet the deal that I have with Izanami, the one about getting to see Ethan's sister. In other words, I'll call it off if you win."

"Oh hell no!" Izanami snapped out, marching towards the table. "What the hell does that mean!? You can't just do that!"

Takumi ignored the screaming girl, instead watching the predictably lost and troubled reaction from Yorokobi. His mouth hung open and agap like a genetic failure of a dog. "Wait... But... I don't even want that to happen! What sort of bet is that, Takumi?"

He shrugged with an annoying grin. "It's a bet, isn't it? We didn't put any limitations on what we could bet. If you wanted to play for specifically the ID cards, you should have said so when we were designing the rules. You're welcome to fold and give up your own ID card."

Before he could respond, Izanami had already swiveled to glare into Yorokobi's soul. "Fold. I'm telling you to fold right now, you don't know what you're doing."

Yorokobi flinched as his fingers grew tighter around the cards. He dodged Izanami's glare and stared back towards Takumi with a conflicted look and seemed to bite the inside of his mouth.

"Yorokobi, look at me," Izanami demanded. "I'm telling you to fold right now. You haven't bet anything big yet except for that card, right? You can fold, and then I can figure out something with Takumi to get it back. This is really important!" Despite her requests, Yorokobi still stared at the glittering con artist himself.

Still enjoying the theatrics, Takumi waved the card in his hand jovially. "I dunno, wouldn't Yorokobi like to hear what the deal is first, anyway? You're always keeping him in the dark about so much. I bet that-"

Yorokobi ignored the meaningless babble and pulled out his own card. "It's my turn," he insisted.

Just from where Yorokobi had pulled it, and everything else he knew about him, Takumi guessed that it would be a nine. For the fun of it, he internally made a guess that it would be the nine of clubs. Unfortunately, Yorokobi had only laid down the nine of diamonds. "That brings me to... fifteen." He quickly peered back to Takumi. "Now are you going to play a damn card or not?"

For a second, Takumi was taken aback. How had he been surprised yet again? Yorokobi was certainly boring, but... The extent to which he was boring was simultaneously disappointing and hard to believe. He pulled himself together and put on a smirk. "Right, right... I suppose you just want to get back to playing. Fine then."

Takumi put the card down on the table as he turned it face up. It was a five of hearts. "So, in combination with my six, that brings me up to an eleven, sheeple boy." He set his other cards aside. There were strategies that one could try to take with a game like this, attempting to fool the opponent into thinking you had some sort of set up with your cards, but Takumi already had his plan figured out.

"Did you just call him a sheeple?" Izanami cut in. "You know that's a plural noun, right?"

"I'm four points ahead of you now."

"Or four points behind, dearie," Takumi reminded. "Remember, it all depends on how I decide the game is scored, and I'm the one in charge of deciding that."

"Well," Yorokobi folded his cards back together. "It's not like you'll know my entire hand by then. I'll still have two hidden cards."

Takumi smiled to himself. "To each their own, dearie. What are you betting for our next round?"

"I still don't have anything else to give you," Yorokobi said, "but I'll bet anything you want as long as you bet one of the ID cards. Just like last time, except you'll actually follow through with what we intended." He gave him a look that only served to give Takumi a short moment of amusement.

"Fine then." Takumi reached down and pulled out another one of the ID cards. "Since I already have one of my better units on the table, I'll throw in another first year I'm more willing to part with." He set it on the table beside Arata's card. "Haruhi Sakamoto, Ultimate Flash Fiction Author. Interesting talent, isn't it? I was thinking of having her do some poetry or something for me, it could be neat."

Yorokobi stared back silently.

"Y'know, I actually heard a rumor that she was going out with that one man..." Takumi went on. "I forget his name, honestly. The legal boy that you and Izanami talked with all the way back in that other game. Something, something... Nakajima? I don't know, I don't actually have his ID card yet!" Takumi gave a light chuckle. He would never forget something that important, but he was enjoying getting to tease Yorokobi.

"What do you want from me?" He replied with a cold tone.

Exhaling, Takumi slouched in his chair. "Fine, fine..." He peered up at Yorkobi from his cards with a death defying stare. "If you lose, you won't be able to play a game with me again. You'll stay out of this forever, and I won't take you up on any more offers. Understood? If you don't want that, here's your chance to back down."

Yorokobi held his cards closer and looked away, avoiding eye contact. Somewhat hesitantly, he spoke, seeming to change the topic. "Takumi... Why were you lying about forgetting Hiroshi's name? There's no way you forgot already, he was there with us back when you made me watch that game with Izanami and Piano."

"Ethan," Izanami unimportantly reminded from the background.

Takumi's smile only grew. "Ah, just thought it would be a little fun. Besides, people tend to get unnerved when I show off how much I really know about them. Isn't it polite of me to hold back a little?"

"No it isn't!" He proclaimed with a sudden shift in mood. "Is this still just a game to you, Takumi? Do you always think of people like they're fictional characters that don't exist? Like they're just some sort of trading card fad? These are actual lives here, trying to do their best to be legitimately good people, y'know!"

Leaning back in his seat, Takumi rested his chin in the palm of his hand. He broke another smirk. "You may be boring, but I have to say... Your defiance is really entertaining. I suppose you at least have that going for you, right?"

"Don't dodge the question." Yorokobi's eyes narrowed toward him again, but this time they were sharper. Takumi could tell that his confidence was somehow only growing. It was starting to get entertaining. "If you keep ignoring me it's only going to turn out worse for you in the end. I'm tired of watching you toy around with people, and it's really starting to piss me off."

Certainly, there was something to be said about how indignant the normally timid boy was. "Very well then," he conceded. "If you're gonna go through all this effort just to get a reaction out of me, I may as well reward you. If nothing else, think of it as a prize for keeping me at least mildly amused. I suppose I have nothing left other than to exploit your weaknesses. Does that make your pretty little heart feel better?"

"Not really," Yorokobi admitted. "Just keep playing your cards after mine so we can keep going with the game. I just wanted to bring that up."

Holding back a chuckle, Takumi looked over to see Izanami's reaction. She was still by the same wall, watching the two of them intently while being mostly quiet. It seemed that she had accepted her role as an observer to this show. He doubted there was any chance that she could help anyone cheat, but he made sure to keep his cards hidden just in case.

Yorokobi looked at his cards again for a few seconds. He carefully picked a card and laid it down, showing off the four of diamonds. "Now I'm at seventeen. Your turn."

Still, and forever still, grinning, Takumi laid down his next card. He could sense the desperate plays from the cards that Yorokobi was laying out, but he enjoyed keeping the game close just to toy with him more. "I'll play the nine of spades. Now I'm at nineteen! Splendid."

"You're ahead again."

"These rounds really go by fast, huh?" Takumi mused. "No matter, I'll assume we're going through the same theratrics as last time about the bets? Do you want to do it before or after we reveal cards? We're both down to two now."

Yorkobi nodded. "Yeah, but let's do it after we reveal the cards, actually."

"Alrighty then." Takumi twirled his fingers through each other, snapping them with a satisfying crack of release. "Let's get to it, hm?"

He grabbed the deck from the table and took away the top two cards. "We'll save these two as the wild cards so that neither one of us knows for certain what the other has." After that, Takumi started to flip over the deck one by one in a uniform pattern to keep everything sorted. By the end, it was very easy to tell which cards were missing.

"So, discounting the cards that we've already played, there's..." Takumi counted them out. "The five of clubs, the three of clubs,, ten of hearts, jack of clubs, queen of spades, and... The king of hearts!"

Takumi laid back in his chair now that the other cards had been laid out. "Those are the only ones missing. Did you know that the king of hearts is also called the suicide king by some? That's because in many printings, he's depicted in a way that makes it look like he's stabbing his own throat."

Yorokobi stared back at him intensely. It was amusing watching him try his best to not look at his cards.

"I wonder why that is. Maybe the fool of a king got too attached to so many lovers or something and killed himself out of despair. What do you think it is, Yorokobi?"

"I think you should tell me what to bet so that we can get back to playing."

Takumi held back a laugh. "Very well then. You wanted me to stop covering up how much I knew about you guys, right? Didn't it piss you off that I was trying to be humble or something?"

There was no response, though he could hear Izanami getting agitated in the background.

"Y'know," Takumi set his cards on the table. "I can't imagine us being any more different, really. I lived in a pretty small town once, like you did, but I hated every single moment of being there. Everything was so boring and predictable. Some of the elders even tried to call me possessed just because I could tell what they were thinking. I was above them all, and it didn't matter at all because of how ignorant they were."

"But that's the way of the world, isn't it?" Though Takumi's eyes were deeper and more serious than they had been before, a slow and canine-like smile crept over his lips. "Skill doesn't get acknowledged for the sake of it, despite what this school says. Everywhere I go is just the same dumb and stupid planet."

"Stop complimenting yourself about how egotistical you are and get on with it," Yorokobi said bluntly.

This incurred a pause. The grin on Takumi's face vanished as he showed a true color of intensity. Over his glazed and narrowed eyes was a sense of viciousness. "I'm not egotistical, I'm merely realistic. Don't bring me down to that level. My skills simply exceed yours.

"You're a craft brewer, that's your talent. Despite how you act, I bet you're quite the scientist on the inside. A logician, someone who sees things only in the point of view that they can understand. Don't act like you know more about how people work than I do," he insisted.

Yorokobi didn't argue, but Takumi could tell that he was fighting himself not to. Instead, he clenched his teeth and waited.

With that out of the way, Takumi felt more free. He put the smile back on his face. "Let's move on. You want a bet, right? Fine then, If you're so tired of me being nice I have no reason to continue putting on an act. Let's see where that gets you, hm?" There was a twinge of something holding back behind his jovial tone. It was as if he was choking down his own venomous instincts. "I think this one will be a hit ."

Just as Takumi predicted, his opponent stayed silent.

"If you lose this game," Takumi's smile swayed further into a wicked grin. "Then you have to get a tattoo of a baseball bat. Could be anywhere, do it on your ass for all I care. I just want you to get it. I know connections that can make it happen."

Yorokobi's eyes flickered rampantly before staring at Takumi with awe. Everything in the man's body seemed to freeze at that moment before it slowly melted into a disturbed shake. "You... You couldn't..." He stopped himself. "N-no, why would you ask that? What makes you think-?"

Takumi smiled back, cutting him off. "I did my research. Shouldn't that be obvious? You asked me to stop holding back." There was a delectable irony in all of this somewhere, Takumi longed to enjoy it.

"No," he weakly mumbled before staring down in submission. "That's..."

"What's so bad about that? Is he really that much of a wimp?" Izanami chimed in from the background, somehow becoming relevant for a short moment. "I know it's illegal and all, but it can't be that hard to go undetected, right? Won't be too long before it'll be legal anyway."

With a devilish chuckle, Takumi shrugged. "You'll see why it matters to him someday, perhaps. It's not your business anyway, now is it? This is about sending a message." He didn't even turn to the girl.

"No..." Yorokobi repeated.

"Yes!" Takumi responded.

Looking back up into Takumi's eyes with a deviant determination, Yorokobi spoke louder. "No. That's not enough. You're still holding back. Are we just supposed to go back and forth like this? I don't want that."

"Excuse me?"

"I want you to bet all this whole ID card business so that I don't have to look at your face any longer," he said with conviction. "Whatever it'll take, I'll bet it. I won't even argue. I want you to give me all of the cards in exchange."

That was hard for him to understand at first. It was so... Undeniably reckless and stupid! Losing composure, Takumi's head hung low as he started to chuckle. It was a dry and sarcastic laugh that made fun of anyone unfortunate enough to listen. He slowly looked back up as his nonstop cackling rose.

"You're really that, stupid huh?" He continued. "You're the most boring person at this whole school, but I'm gonna milk all the enjoyment I can get out of you tonight! Seems like a win for me!"

Yorokobi looked back at him with a cruel gaze. "You like watching me suffer or whatever, right? You already know about the deaths, don't you?"

Takumi's muscles clenched up in excitement. "Oh! You wouldn't! You're really giving me that to work with!?" He gave a sudden and quick scoff. "You're so stupid! Alright, fine. I'll play your little game."

Calming himself down, Takumi reclined. He let off a deep breath before speaking. "Alright... I'll bet all of the cards I have if you agree to film a video with me right now. I won't post it to the public unless you lose, but... In that video, I want you to confess to what you did back then. How's that sound?"

Izanami stepped closer to the table, seemingly more confused yet invested than ever. "What? What does that even have to do with anything? Deaths?"

"Oh, it's nothing too important to anything relevant right now, I guess... But it's pretty big news for him," Takumi mulled aloud as he stared into Yorokobi's dull yet quivering eyes. "Haven't you ever wondered why someone like him is so tame? So eager to please? His talent is borderline illegal since he's a minor, and yet he still acts like such a goodie two shoes!"

"I guess, but..." Izanami glanced over to look at the cornered boy. Though she was cold just a moment ago, a few gentle curves of worry had risen into her feminine eyes. "Still..."

"Do you have a point to make, or are you just speaking so that you can feel less unimportant to the situation?" Takumi accused. "You'd notice there was something weird to him if you only paid attention to what he said, it's written all over! Someone doesn't act as guilty as him without having done something first. Hell, don't you think it's kind of strange that he'd try and make some weird variant of-"

Interrupting the not-so-poor lad, Yorokobi spoke up. "That's enough," he said with a somber yet firm designation. Then, without a moment's hesitation, he looked straight into the beast's eyes. "Takumi... I guess it'd make sense for you to know. You probably did research on everyone around here, right? It couldn't take too much bribery to figure out the truth."

He took a deep and hollow breath before. "Your tactics are still cheap and dirty, but I won't falter. I accept as long as you promise to bet what I ask."

A sly grin smeared across Takumi's lips. "Your funeral. Truth be told it's probably not even that big of an issue, but I know it'll rip you out from the inside, won't it? It'll be what you get for getting too deep into this stuff."

Even still, something in Yorokobi seemed to resist giving in completely. That was fine, Takumi wouldn't let himself be intimidated just because someone was a little stubborn. If the cretin was planning something, he'd have seen through whatever it was from the start.

In fact, from the very start of the game, Yorkobi hadn't made any suspicious actions at all, not that a boring simpleton like him would. As far as Takumi saw it, the game was already won in his favor.

"Izanami," Takumi snapped her to attention with a call. "In my desk, in the second drawer down on the right. It should be open, and there's a video camera inside of it. Could you be a dear and fetch it for me?"

"No."

With a sigh, Takumi set his cards down and slowly walked to his desk. He moved quietly to make sure that he'd hear if someone tried to disturb his cards, but no one was foolish enough to. After all, curiosity had probably taken Izanami and fear had taken Yorokobi, so neither were in a position to do much. Currently, Takumi held all of the power in the room.

It was boring that way, he'd have to start this soon so that things could get interesting again. Without hesitance he brought the camera over and sat back down, noticing that the others had barely even moved since he got up. "You don't have to be statues, you know," he reminded. "It's not like I'm actually gonna kill the guy."

"Don't worry, this camera can't connect to the internet or anything. I just brought it to the school in case of something like this... But anyway, you know what to do, right?" Takumi asked and waited for a nod in reply from Yorokobi. Once he agreed, Takumi raised the camera up and held it so that it was easy to see the brewer's face. Even still though, he was careful to leave out any major indicators that it was his room. If there was anything small he missed, he knew it could be edited in post. "Okay, now everyone be sure to be quiet, and..."

After the recording started, he gave a silent thumbs up and a mischievous smile.

Steeling himself with another deep breath, it started. "My name is Yorokobi Ida, currently enrolled at Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Craft Brewer, and I've been the cause of two deaths within my family while keeping it a secret to the outside world."

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, even though I said it wouldn't be too long. This spring is still pretty hellish for me! Luckily though I'm already halfway through my quarter, so eventually I'll (hopefully) get a break from my classes!

In other news, I hope you enjoyed this section. This entire scene has ended up being really long, so I actually had to insert a small cliff hanger here and even extend the next part a little so that I could get something that could possibly resemble decent pacing... My only hope is that nothing in this scene feels too out of place or sudden to a point that it becomes an issue. If you ended up skimming through this chapter a little, I'd definitely forgive you.