Silent Stardust of the Moon

Chapter 46: D'Arby the Gambler, Part 2

Jotaro pulled a chair out and took the seat. Ready to get the game started as he started D'Arby down. As he spoke Avdol and Hikari moved their fallen friends and sat them on chairs until this was over. "Before we get things started, there's something I want to get check. How about you go and shuffle those cards." He tells him.

D'Arby obliges and picks up the deck of cards on the table. Like an expert dealer in a casino, D'Arby shuffled the cards expertly and efficiently. Jotaro kept his eyes locked onto both his hands and the cards the whole time. "And shuffle they are. What pray tell do you have in mind next?" He asked.

"Now draw a card from the deck. Which one it is doesn't really make a whole lot of difference. But don't show anyone." Jotaro tells him. D'Arby let out a small scoff but did what he said and picked up a small pile of cards in his hands. "Very well."

"And now I'll call it. It's the Six of Hearts." Jotaro said. In D'Arby's hands, the first one facing him was indeed, in fact, the Six of Hearts. "Next, I think I'll name the cards from the top down. Five of Spades. Queen of Diamonds. Jack of Spades. Ace of Hearts. Seven of Diamonds. Plus the Six of Clubs. King of Clubs and Two of Diamonds." D'Arby was caught off guard by all of this. He laid out all the cards in his hands to reveal to the others. Jotaro had gotten all of the cards right in perfect order.

"You guessed them all! And that's after D'Arby shuffled the deck! How did you do that?!" Avdol asked, shocked by this.

"I could rattle off the entire deck if I wanted to." Jotaro says. Star Platinum appearing beside him. "Remember my request from earlier? While you were shuffling the cards, Star Platinum was busy memorising their order in the deck."

"Quite the interesting strategy. That said, defeating your plan is a simple matter of shuffling the cards in a manner that obstructs your vision of them." D'Arby says.

"Are you that dense? Cheating is gonna be damn near impossible as long as you have me as an opponent. Just something I thought you should be aware of." Jotaro tells him. Letting know is one of the few gracious things the tall delinquent will grant him. "Okay." D'Arby said.

Open the game

D'Arby brought out a pack of cards the security seal intact. The security seal was unbroken, irrefutable confirmation that the deck has not been tampered with in any way. Jotaro reached over and grabbed the pack opening the cards. As he taking the cards out, D'Arby reached over, without looking, began flipping through pages of a bible. Jotaro laid the cards out on the table and examined them. "Well, there's only one Joker here. Don't see anything unusual. It's a normal deck." Jotaro said as he started to put them in a stack.

D'Arby stopped flipping the pages and stopped at a certain one. 'The page number is 538. 540. No, 556.' D'Arby thought. He glanced down and saw that the page his thumb was holding was page 556 exactly. 'I still got it. My ability to discern page number by touch is as sharp as ever. It's true that Jotaro's Star Platinum has incredible visual prowess. But can remember the placement of anything simple through the use of touch. Shuffle them all you want, I still know the exact location of every card.' When Jotaro was finished, he placed the stack of cards on the table.

"Okay! Open the game!" D'Arby declares as he reached forward lifting the stack of cards in half and flipping the bottom card over. "Looks like it's the Ten of Hearts." Jotaro also reached for a card. "I drew the Seven of Clubs."

"Then it seems like I'll be dealing." D'Arby says as he chuckled. 'Alright. I need to shuffle so Star Platinum can't see.' D'Arby grabbed the cards. He shuffled the cards before placing them back on the table. "If you would cut the deck." Jotaro grabbed the cards and cut the stack into two sections and placing the bottom half over the top. When he finished, D'Arby picked them up again. "Thank you and now I'll deal." D'Arby said.