Marionette ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

King of Diamonds - Part Two

It was night the next day by the time they decided to participate in another game. They had been gathering information during the day, asking around if they knew who cleared what game, what the games entailed, and most importantly, if the game masters revealed any information to them.

As expected however, nothing much came out of it.

Though, Chishiya was a little impressed that Arisu cleared the King of Clubs game. Not that he expected less of Arisu.

He looked up at the King of Diamonds' blimp as he was approaching the arena, smiling a little to himself. He had been looking forward to this battle since the second stage was announced. Chishiya was alone, however. Kurenai had gone to the Jack of Hearts, but the two arenas were on opposite ends of the city, so they went their separate ways.

They promised to stay alive and meet up after their games, but a gut feeling was telling Chishiya perhaps he would not be able to keep this promise.

Rain was pouring down, and three others were already waiting outside the building. It seemed like they needed four people before they could enter. Chishiya came just in time. Before he could approach them, however, the sole woman called out for him to stop.

"What can you do? Maths? Memorisation? We're about to face the King of Diamonds, we don't need any meatheads," she said.

Fair enough.

"Well, I cleared the Jack of Diamonds...I guess?"

That seemed to be good enough for them.

The building they were going into was the justice building. They followed the signs, coming to one particular room and opened the door into a courtroom. And the King of Diamonds was already sat waiting for them.

As soon as he laid eyes on the man, Chishiya smirked. He knew it.

"I knew it would be you, former Beach number three, Kuzuryuu."

Despite Chishiya's recognition, Kuzuryuu was perfectly calm. Everyone else seemed to have questions for him though it was as if he did not hear them as he directed for them to each take a seat and shackle themselves down.

"Why did you become the King of Diamonds?" Chishiya asked, persistent to the end. "Rumours have it that you Borderland citizens were once players like us. Basically, our seniors. As players who had cleared all of these games, What led you to become the King? Endorsement? Candidacy?

"Perhaps you thought you were most fit to reign as the King of intellect? I don't think so though, you're not that arrogant. Even as an officer to the Hatter at the Beach, you quite earnestly supported him. Despite being a King who was supposed to be taking players' lives. What were you trying to achieve by infiltrating the Beach? Were there some grounds for you to be in those games as a King?"

"No merit, nor obligation, nor duty. There is no merit in answering that question of yours."

"Nice, I finally got you to say something unrelated to the game."

Each player then sat down in a chair and shackled themselves as instructed. The rules were simple: within a minute, they each had to choose a number on the tablet in front of them from 0 to 100. The average of the sum would be calculated and whoever chose the closest number to 4/5th of the average would be the winner.

This was not simply a test of their mathematics skills, It sounded like a Hearts game in disguise but it was not the opponents' hearts they had to read, it was their rationality.

"I don't care if you are the King of intelligence, you're still dumber than me."

Once a player reached -10 points, however, it would be game over for them. Only one player would come out on top, and Chishiya had confidence that it would be him. Though, his goal right now was not to survive the game. His goal was to extract information from Kuzuryuu. He wanted answers, for what Borderland was, and why he chose to be a citizen and the King of Diamonds.

They were given five minutes the first time, so to digest the rules and get used to the game.

"Hey look, the King is shackled down like us. He's fighting us alone, isn't that a huge advantage to us?"

God, this woman sure was chatty.

Although he had a smile on his face, Chishiya could not help but feel a little irritated. Having someone like her in the game would be an advantage, in his opinion. Just from the small interactions they had, he could tell that she was a very simple and straightforward person. She was not the type to overthink and over-analyse anything. Which meant that she could be used to throw Kuzuryuu off.

Still, he would prefer if she would shut up every now and then.

If only Kurenai was here...

No, it was fortunate she was not. Only one survivor was allowed in this game, it was a wise decision for them to choose to be separated.

"Actually, it's quite a fair battle," Chishiya pointed out. "If he were to win, it takes four people's lives to keep him alive."

"Fair, huh?"

"Seeing as the King is a lawyer, and we're playing in a court. The ideals of a lawyer are fairness and equality. All life is equal. Almost like a viewpoint of God."

"Lawyers...God, I hate them," the woman, Daimon, sighed. "The scales always favour the rich. It's almost ironic that their field of work, the worth of a life never ends up being equal."

Her words got Chishiya thinking as he looked over to Kuzuryuu. Was that what he was trying to prove here? That in Borderland, all lives were equal. It did not matter if you were a King, a lawyer, or just a simple person trying to live. They all stood on equal grounds.

Kuzuryuu won the first round, and the players soon found out what was waiting for them if they were to game over here. Above their heads were giant scales, and acid was added to the scale every time they lost. Once they reached -10, the acid would overflow and that would lead to a definite game over.

And for the next few rounds, Kuzuryuu kept winning.

The way they were playing, however, there was no way they could win against him. While Kuzuryuu seemed to be thinking ten steps ahead, everyone else was not. Chishiya was thinking ahead too, but he was not factoring in the other players as well as Kuzuryuu was.

Daimon was simple, she thought ahead but only about two steps. The other man seemed to be catching up on the trend, but the old man was the main problem. He was smart, for sure, but he was too engrossed in himself. He was predicting the answer as if everyone was on the same level as he was, though he failed to take into account the simple mind of Daimon's.

"I finally get it," Chishiya smiled, looking straight at Kuzuryuu. "I know what you are trying to weigh."

Picking a number, Chishiya had a smug look on his face as he looked up at the screen displaying the results.

Out of the blue, he had chosen 100.

It was a number that he would never win with, but that was not the point of his choice. He threw a point away, but he also succeeded in deducting a point from Kuzuryuu. It was simply a move to throw them off, to break the circle so to speak.