Alice in Borderland: The Cycle Continues

22) Five of Hearts [2] ✮

===Zakū Raisunei===

Unsurprisingly, it struck Charī's name.

"Charī Kasutoro is chosen to be the defendant! May he please make his way into the cage within the next two minutes."

Charī gulped, slowly getting out of his chair, his face paling. Despite that, he chuckled. "Well, guess I'm going into the death chamber!"

Although, his voice had been laced with a fake cheeriness. Niko patted his back. "Don't worry about it mate, we'll try to work together to get you out of there, no matter what. Okay?"

"Y-Yeah Charī, this isn't a death sentence. Just b-be brave, okay?" Rafferty encouraged.

Charī smiled, and made his way towards the chamber. "I wonder what I witnessed." He questioned, opening the metallic door and stepping inside. Once inside, he slid his arms into the steel restraints, and set his foot inside the thick, wrought iron rings. Upon contact, the cuffs tightened mechanically, pulling against the wires of the cage as the door slammed shut. However, as I had previously noted, his left hand was still free, able to reach the table.

"The remaining players will compose the jury. Please equip a noose within the next two minutes."

On cue, the ring of nooses descended from their paused positions on the ceiling, rotating on the conveyor belt so that each noose would be directly above the player.

"Here we go." Chihaya said, putting the noose on. Taking a deep breath, I put mine on, as Rafferty and Niko followed. Judumai and Benkei took a moment longer to put on theirs, but gathered the courage with time.

"All nooses have been secured. Please do not leave your seat, or that will result in Game Over. And now, onto the rules for the second stage of the game: judgment.

"With the defendant's game history in mind, the jury shall now vote on whether the defendant deserves to live over the lives of the jury."

The simmering tension released like a sliding tectonic plate, and the players erupted into confused shouts.

"What the hell?" Chihaya shouted.

"What?" Charī questioned, looking at his chains.

"So it's us or him?" Judumai asked, turning to Charī.

"If the jury has more votes than the defendant, the defendant receives a Game Over, while the jury receives a Game Clear. If the defendant receives more votes than the jury, then the defendant receives a Game Clear, while the jury receives a Game Over."

"These nooses..." Benkei muttered. Panicking, he grabbed a hold of the rope, clawing at it desperately. "Get this thing off of me!"

"N-No!" Rafferty yelled, reaching out and seizing his hands. "If you try to take it off, it could c-cause the game to automatically r-raise the noose!"

"Furthermore, Charī also has a single opportunity to tag out with any of the other jury members. However, he only has up to ten minutes to do so. The jury has a total of twenty minutes to finish voting. Vote on your tablets."

With a blip, two buttons appeared on the screen below a blank timer: one labeled defendant, and one labeled jury.

"Wait, tag out?" Judumai asked. "How?"

All our eyes traveled onto one location: Charī had forgotten to take his tablet and file. His eyes widened.

"Since the defendant managed to forget to take his possessions, a tag-out will simply be recorded orally. With that, let judgment begin."