Chapter Text
Jack of Clubs: Truth or Dare
As the little chime sounded across the room, and the words lit up a screen embedded into a wall, Chishiya found himself shivering. The sling around his arm itched, too. So, yeah. He was having a bad few days. He backstabbed everyone at the beach, got his ass kicked as a result, almost got blown up by a grenade, Arisu was refusing to look him in the eyes anymore, and Niragi was not actually dead.
Then, to top it all off, just what he needed. A game about sharing his feelings.
The screen light up again, and continued:
Registration is now closed.
Number of participants: Six
Rules: All players must wear the provided headsets at all times and enter the nearby freezer. Once inside, all players must hang onto the bars whenever they are not playing Truth or Dare. Failure to hang onto the bars will result in penalties. Players may take turns participating in Truth or Dare and participants may chose within a time limit who will play next. Only one participant may be playing at a time, and all other participants must continue to hold onto the bars. Once all participants have decided the participant who will play next, the chosen participant must choose Truth or Dare. The Jack of Clubs will determine the prompt that will be made visible on the screen. The player must complete the prompt within the time limit or face penalties. All participants may ‘steal’ another participants’ prompt up to three times. Once a prompt has been stolen, it may not be stolen again. Once a prompt has been completed by a participant, the prompt will not appear again.
Time Limit: 1 hour.
Clear condition: Play the game for the 1 hour time limit with each participant answering three prompts minimum, including both Truth and Dare. Should the Jack of Clubs be impressed with your performance, all participants clear the game. If the Jack of Clubs is not pleased with the performance, it is Game Over for all participants.
♣ ♣ ♣
They had left the beach under less than ideal circumstances. Chishiya had stolen all of the cards from Hatter, but not before Niragi had beat the shit out of Arisu for getting caught breaking into the safe, and not before Niragi also almost raped Usagi.
Yeah. Not Chishiya’s brightest moment.
In his defense, he knew Arisu was tough. If the worst thing Niragi did was rough him up a bit, he knew Arisu could take it. He had tried to get to Usagi as soon as he realized what was happening, but… he had to get the cards first. And then Aguni had beat Chishiya over the head with his gun. By the time Chishiya woke up, Arisu, Usagi, and Niragi were all missing. He decided to cut his losses. Aguni had apparently been so blinded by Hatter’s death and Chishiya’s inability to save him (Chishiya could do a lot of things, but bring back dead people was not one of them), that he did not even bother checking Chishiya’s pockets. So, awake but concussed, Chishiya had tried to leave the beach with the cards.
Then the ten of hearts game started. Which, really, went as well as it could have gone.
Chishiya had narrowly avoided making eye contact with Kuina, Arisu, or Usagi since meeting up with them when Mai announced more games.
Getting shoved in the car with them, plus Ann and Tatta, was only the cherry atop the shitty cake.
“Run, Chishiya!” Kuina had yelled, and Chishiya begrudgingly had shoved his hands in his pockets, ensuring the cards were still there, before sprinting towards the car as best he could. There was a faint metallic clink beneath his feet, and he looked down just in time to see the King of Spades had tossed a grenade. Chishiya tried to lean back, but Arisu grabbed him by the jacket and yanked him inside the car. Chishiya twisted, hitting his head on the roof of the vehicle, just as the grenade blew up and Ann drove off. His ears rung and something slammed into his right bicep, and burning—ripping pain followed.
He saw Kuina’s mouth moving, wide eyes drifting down at his arm, but all he could hear was the high pitched ringing in his ears. He looked down, his hearing beginning to clear, and saw his arm drenched in red, a large piece of jagged rock embedded in it. Tatta gagged, paling considerably, upon seeing the wound in the rearview mirror.
“Put your seatbelt on,” Chishiya said, stoic, staring at Arisu. He had been shoved in the man’s lap, with Kuina and Usagi also squished in the back seat.
“What, was me getting tied up once not enough?” Arisu yelled over screeching tires and whipping wind, and if Chishiya was not already woozy from the arm wound, he might have flushed, because, okay, fair. Arisu still put on his seatbelt though.
Then the car wrecked, and Ann got lost in the chaos. Chishiya had been forced to wrap his not-bloodied arm around Kuina, who was standing in the middle of the street looking like a lost deer. “No time, we will find her later,” Chishiya said.
Kuina’s eyes glossed over. “But-“
Chishiya gave her a look, and Kuina followed.
Due to Chishiya’s injuries, they had been forced to lay low for a few days until he could get all of the pieces of rocks out of his own fucking arm. He had been tipsy for some of it, Arisu had been drunk for it, as a bottle of bourbon had been passed around to clean various wounds, physical or emotional.
“I need some for my broken nail,” Kuina had said, slumped against a wall.
Chishiya had spoke around a wooden stick as he stared at blood, muscle, skin, and frankly too much rocks and glass. “Bet Ann likes short nails.”
Kuina threw a pillow at his feet. “Shut the fuck up. I’m not talking to you right now.”
So, they had not kicked Chishiya out. But it did not take a genius to know that none of them were particularly happy with him. Which was fine. He was familiar with it. He only let himself wonder why Arisu withheld so many of the gentle touches when Chishiya was on the brink of falling asleep, then he did not have to think about it until the next night. He could manage. If anything, this was more familiar. Familiar was good. Familiar like their visas needing to be recharged, so they went searching for a game. Chishiya was concussed, so diamonds were not a good plan. Hearts were obviously out of the question. If the King of Spades was any sign about what the other Spades games would be like, no one wanted to do that. So, that left Clubs. Fortunately, the Face Cards were easy to find.
The Jack of Clubs game looked to be held inside a market, and the same buzzing lights ran across the entryway and sealed them inside upon entering. The market was winding, and they had walked down two stories into a dimly light and cool space lined with heavy metal doors before finding a table with various headsets. Chishiya knew enough to be able to infer that they were in the freezer where the market kept their frozen goods, as a faint layer of mist swirled around and layers of plastic separated one room from another. Turning his attention away from the industrial freezer doors, Chishiya made note of the fact that the headsets on the table looked different from the contraptions worn during Werewolf. Arisu also mumbled something about this looking different—but not enough for comfort—from those he wore during Tag. Unfortunately, there was one dark figure already in the arena when they arrived at a market where this game was held.
“No,” Usagi said, before the figure could fully even turn around. Her hands curled into shaking fists. Tatta shimmied in front of her slightly, legs trembling.
Chishiya allowed himself a brief moment. His eyes widened, mouth dropped open slightly. “You should be dead,” he said.
Niragi, who still had that self-satisfied smirk on his face despite the layers of wrappings and peeling, blistering skin, spread his arms in glee. “I’m gonna kill you, brat. Let the games begin.”
Yeah. This was all less than ideal, as far as Chishiya was concerned.