𝐒𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 // 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫ō 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

40

One thing that a person would do to cover up their regrets is to fill up their heads with fabricated delusions to make them feel better about themselves. To gaslight themselves or others and make them think they did the right thing, or attempting to wipe it all with delusions, drugs or alcohol. Though none of that will work, as life will always find a way to remind you about your past actions and mistakes.

ROUND 3, START.

It was the man with the weird hair's turn to deal. He spread the cards into one line and took a quick glance towards everyone's face, seeming slightly nervous.

After letting out a puff of smoke from her cigarette, the old lady scoffed and stared at him. "What are you trying at?"

"..To ensure that there will be no further foul play, I'd like to inspect all the cards." He replied with a slight delay at the start.

"You're a damn magician." You rolled your eyes. "We all know what you're trying to do, and it's not gonna work."

"I-I assure you all, I am not trying to play a trick on anyone." He replied, stumbling over his words quite a bit.

You stifled a laugh and let him do whatever he wanted to do, though you knew the Jack was keeping his eye on him.

He let out a deep sigh before loosening his hands by wiggling them gently and cracking his neck. Then, he reached towards the cards and took a look at them, feeling the cards before putting them back together and mixing them. He started off with the Jack, trying to distribute a card before immediately getting stopped by him.

"BAAAAHHH!" The Jack yelled into his face, leaving him shocked and freezing him in his movements.

"Told you." You placed a hand on your chin and looked at the man's hand, seeing that he tried to do a second-deal.

You looked back up to him with a condescending and mocking look on your face. "At least make an effort to be sneaky, big guy. Anyone was able to tell that you tried to pull off a second-deal."

"You thought I wouldn't be able to notice, huh?" Amon said, his voice deep and low.

"No excuses. You're caught red-handed." He paused to shift in his seat. "In this game, how do we settle this dispute?"

You heard a mechanism moving around in the room. The metals were clanking and colliding against each other for a brief second, and then the red button on the table illuminated, shining onto everyone—except the magician's faces.

"What..?!" The magician uttered, "what's going on..?!"

"All of our buttons aside from the magician's.." The elderly woman took a pause to inspect the red button. "..are lit up?"

"I see." Amon smirked slightly and stared at the button. "So that's how it is."

You stared intently at the button and hummed, moving your gaze towards the gun that was encased into a glass box.

"Don't act clueless." You perked a brow and tilted your head. "You knew this would happen, idiot. You're the Jack after all."

He glared at you before aggressively pushing the red button, whirring up some sort of mechanism. The glass case which protected the gun retreated back into the table, which now showed only the gun.

"First come, first served." Amon smirked. "One round in the Baretta."

He tinkered around with the gun for a few moments.

"According to the rules, a Game Over condition is illegal restraint..." he checked how many bullets were loaded in before looking back to the magician. "In other words, should there be a party that cheats, Apropos restraint is completely valid."

With one swift move, he aimed the gun towards the magician's head.

"W-what?! Wait..! Plea—"

"Didn't I tell you?" Amon cut him off. "You would be good as dead."

Without thinking twice, Amon shot the magician right in the head. The room consisted of only the sound of the gunshot, and with a deadly silence that followed right after. The magician flopped onto the floor as blood gushed out of his head.

You stared at the course with a somewhat bored expression. "No hesitation, huh? You've done this quite a lot of times I presume."

You stared at Amon with a degrading and condescending smile plastered on your face. "Guess it's your turn to be the dealer now."

ROUND 4 BEGINS NOW.

"There's only three of us left." He said with a calculating look in his eyes. "We're nearing the climax."

He took the deck of cards in his hands. "But first, I have but one word of warning."

"Have you heard of a card mimic? Their sleight of hand operates at machinelike precision."

He tinkered around with the cards and effortlessly performed tricks using a few cards.

"..I did this in Nevada, for 10 years. You won't be able to win any hands while I'm dealer. So when it's your turn to be the dealer, I'll bet the limit and destroy you one by one. You won't be able to see through my tricks, and I won't let any of your tricks slide. From here on, this—"

"Shut up." You cut him off. "We literally have 12 minutes left. I'm not listening to your life story about how you used to be a card trick master, so let me sum this shit up for you." You glared at him and crossed your arms as you stared at him condescendingly.

"In short, you are nothing but a hypocrite who also can't play without using tricks. In my book, card mimics are only magicians who are a single level higher. So you're not special, big guy. Now carry on."

You end your sentence with a mocking smile, not a single ounce of panic in you. You could see anger and confusion in his eyes due to how calm you were being, even in this overwhelming situation.

But in truth, you weren't even sure if you were going to make it out alive.