Marionette ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

Jack of Hearts - Part One

A/N: Fun fact, I made Kurenai come from a rich, well-known family because are you telling me that so many people got transported to Borderland and none of them are celebrities/rich people you'd know? ALSO, I wrote that she knows a participant here cos you really telling me that you wouldn't know a single person? Out of the entire Tokyo, you wouldn't see one familiar face?

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Of all places, the Jack of Hearts game was held in a prison.

There was a table a few feet away from the entrance, with instructions to take a collar, put it on, and enter the arena. No reflective items were allowed, and only twenty players were allowed to participate. Only a couple of collars were left.

Kurenai picked one of the collars, placed it around her neck and walked into the prison. Under all circumstances, she never thought she would be walking into a prison like so. She always thought if she were to go to prison, it would be for the murder of her father.

Following the signs, she soon came to a certain wing within the prison where the other participants were already waiting. As soon as they heard footsteps, the players turned their heads in the direction where it was coming from simultaneously. Kurenai stopped just before entering the wing, a smile slowly spreading on her face.

"Why are you looking at me like this?"

"What the fuck, she looks like she just got here yesterday. Fuck! We're never going to clear this game with people like this."

As she walked in, Kurenai glanced over to the man who spoke. He had a scary look on his face, his body big and muscular. If it were up to her, he would be the one unfit for this game. Perhaps he mistook the Hearts for Spades?

She studied each participant as she walked past them, though it was the man who was crouching on the floor in what looked like a jumpsuit that interested her. He looked a little too comfortable in a prison, while everyone else had a level of discomfort evident. Even as nonchalant as Kurenai was, she was slightly bothered by the setting. This man, however, was not. He could be a useful ally.

With two participants still to join, everyone was a little on edge and agitated as they waited around. That was when a woman's scream attracted the attention of everyone. They followed the sound, coming to a particular cell to see a man thrusting into a woman from behind.

They were having sex. Of all places, and of all time.

Even Chishiya and she were not that freaky.

Though, as the man turned around after finishing, Kurenai could not help but grin. Of all the people she knew, she had to see him again in Borderland.

Not long after, two more girls walked into the wing. The gate slammed shut behind them and locked. Now that there were twenty participants, the game was finally starting.

GAME - SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Before the rules were explained, another door swung open. The group moved as a whole, walking through the door into solitary confinement. There were exactly twenty cells, enough for everyone present.

"Hey, some kind of mark appeared on the back of your collar. It's a sp- Wait, am I allowed to say it?"

"There's a mark on your collar too."

"What? Really? But I can't see it."

Instantly, Kurenai knew what kind of game they were playing.

With the mark on the back of their collars, it would be impossible to see it themselves. That could only mean that they had to trust someone else to tell them what mark it was. Though, in Borderland, and in these games, could you really trust someone? What bothered Kurenai the most, however, was that the Jack of Hearts was nowhere to be seen. These games were supposed to be played with the citizens.

RULES

- GUESS CORRECTLY THE MARK ON YOUR COLLAR

- PLAYERS HAVE ONE HOUR PER ROUND

- FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THEN, THE CELL DOORS WILL LOCK AND PARTICIPANTS ARE TO BE IN A ROOM EACH BY THEN

- IN THE REMAINING FIVE MINUTES, PLEASE STATE YOUR MARK VERBALLY

- THOSE WHO GUESSED CORRECTLY, THEIR MARKS WILL CHANGE AND ANOTHER ROUND WILL BEGIN

- THE JACK OF HEARTS IS AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS

GAME OVER CONDITIONS

- INCORRECT GUESSES OR NON-RESPONSE

- NO MORE THAN 1 PERSON MAY RESIDE IN A CELL

- PLAYERS MAY NOT OBSTRUCT OTHER PLAYERS FROM ENTERING A CELL

- PLAYERS MAY NOT REVOKE ANOTHER'S ABILITY TO ANNOUNCE THEIR OWN MARK

- IF TWO PLAYERS SURVIVE WITH THE JACK OF HEARTS AS ONE OF THEM

GAME CLEAR CONDITION

- IF THE JACK OF HEARTS EXPERIENCE GAME OVER

It sounded like an easy game, though Hearts games were never easy.

Every person in this prison was supposedly strangers to each other. In a Hearts game, it was difficult to trust even someone you knew, let alone a stranger. And things were made even more difficult with a game master thrown into the mix.

Kurenai had to admit, however, this was quite a lot of fun.

Much better than the King of Hearts' game.

"Basically, you just have to kill as many people as possible before it comes down to just you and the Jack. Though, how can you really trust that someone isn't the Jack? Still, it seems like the Jack is quite confident in themselves."

Yaba Oki was the man who spoke. The man Kurenai knew before Borderland, and he was still as arrogant as ever.

"Since there is only one Jack, and we don't know their attack plan, why don't we cooperate to the best of our abilities?" Aizen Masaki suggested.

Many others were quick to agree, volunteering to form a group in order to confirm each of their marks as a whole to weed out the Jack if they were to hide among them. It was not too bad of an idea, though it would only be disastrous as they went down the road. Distrust already existed between the twenty participants, there was no way a group would survive for long under these circumstances.

"How about we focus a little on finding the Jack? A Jack is a male, right? So we can rule out the females?"

Idiot.

"Well, there's no evidence that the Jack is explicitly a male. Prejudices can be dangerous."

"Then how about suspicious people? Like the ones who were here first, or the ones who came last. Isn't the timing of their arrival a little odd?"

Even before they began cooperating as a group, they were falling apart as expected.

Uninterested in their debate, Kurenai walked off by herself to do a little exploring. Surely there must be a clue somewhere that could point to the Jack of Hearts? As she walked around in the dark prison, however, Kurenai suddenly turned around when she felt someone following her.

"So it's really you, Chuya Kurenai," Oki smirked.