“A foolish, thoughtless and reckless guess from a thoughtless, reckless fool!” Yukako declared with an echoing cackle that rapidly died off as she caught sight of her foe absently inspecting his nails.
“Oh, I see! You have some grand scheme in mind? Well! Do tell, master gambler! What is your plan? Enlighten us with your shining wisdom!”
“I would,” Shino replied, not even deigning to grant Yukako eye contact. “But that would hardly be intelligent of me, now would it? When playing a card game, one must always keep his hand close to his chest.
“But I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a hint once you answer one of my questions. Clubs or deuce?”
“Fine then! It is not a deuce! Now, will you keep that promise?” Yukako smiled eerily. “Or will you break it as easily as you break the lives of those around you?”
“Oh, that’s easy enough if you think about the rules for a moment,” Shino sighed, scooping his cards into a single pile and absently shuffling them while Yukako did the same with her eyes threatening to burn a hole in his head. “What is the victory condition for this game?”
“To correctly guess the opponent’s card! Tsk, it was rapidly becoming apparent to the beautiful challenger that this supposed gambling master was little more than an idiot with good fortune on his side. To not even know the end goal of the very game he was playing! She drew her hand and smiled, now knowing victory would be even more simple than first beli- Ah!"
Shino smiled. Looks like she got it. Who was the fool now, huh? Especially since she would have surely tested the game. To fail to see such a simple little ploy merely indicated that she had been blind to any other route to victory other than her own cheating ways.
“The hell is going on?” Toshiko yelled. Oh dear, she must be getting a little impatient, and it was hard to blame her. “Shino! What are you up to!”
While holding his newly drawn hand close to his chest with one hand, Shino extended the other to point towards Yukako with a cocky smirk. “Given that scowl, I think my beautiful challenger is about to figure it out for herself. Why don’t you illuminate everyone, while we choose our cards?”
“… The foolish fool failed to fully think through his foolish thoughts!” Yukako snarled. “At most this would save him but a turn, for the game is won when an adversary cannot dismiss either question! No doubt he intends to eliminate number by number until the suit is denied instead, then change to another suit and continue along the same route until victory is accomplished. He is still losing this game, and smiles about it as if he was winning!”
“Losing, am I? Hardly. I realised something else interesting due to the nature of the rules,” Shino said, placing three cards face down onto the playing field. “I’ll even tell you what it is just before we reveal our cards. I’ve chosen mine. Now choose yours.”
Yukako huffed and set hers onto the table, face down. “Very well. Share this revelation with the class, and show us the way of the gambler!”
“The quickest way to win the game is to play the highest cards you can, of as many different suits. Therefore, a smart player would always remove a lower card from their deck rather than a high one, in order to make it slightly easier on themselves to win rounds. So the next time I win, I guess four and clubs, then five and clubs, then six and clubs -”
“Fufufufufu,” Yukako chuckled. “But in order for you to make those guesses, you must first win permission to get there! Reveal your cards!”
And so they did, turning them over simultaneously to reveal:
<u>Shino</u>
Jack of Clubs
Three of Spades
Ace of Diamonds
<u>Yukako</u>
Five of Hearts
Seven of Clubs
Eight of Diamonds
“And now he starts to understand, perhaps, why his defeat is now inevitable!” Yukako chuckled. “All of his plans and his cunning fall and crumble around him for one simple fact: He cannot risk playing any Hearts from now on! Not without pushing himself closer to the edge of defeat! Each Heart he plays is as damning to him as a loss, meaning that the great gambler is trapped! Trapped by cowardice and logic! Should he play a Heart and win, the brilliant Yukako will simply eliminate its number from consideration. Should he lose, the number is still lost but so too would be another!
“This game is mine! Now! Deuce or Heart?!”
But for all her ranting and all of her raving, one single thing struck out to a particular member of the audience. She couldn’t help but see it, and was completely confused by the reason he was feeling this way. Tomoko scowled and wondered - just why was Shino so damned calm in a time like this? The only reason that made any sense was if -
Was if Yukako was behaving exactly as he’d intended.
“What are you up to…” Tomoko mumbled.
- The next round, Shino springs a trap on Yukako!
- The next round, Shino exposes Yukako’s cheating!
- Shino remains calm while Yukako wins round after round.
- Something else
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