The Joestar Protector Book 2

Who Will Win the Game

Jotaro sat down at the table and D'Arby cleared it off, of the coins and the liquor. He set a deck of cards on the table and waited for what I assumed Jotaro's approval. I stood by D'Arby not being able to go to the other side of the table, because of his stand. His stand would move me back to his side until he bet me in the game.

   " Before we get things started, how about you go ahead and shuffle those cards? "

D'Arby didn't say anything as he took the cards and split the deck in half. He put his thumbs on the top of the cards and let them fall randomly together. When they were combined he hit both sides of the deck on the table.

   " And shuffled they are. What praytell do you have in mind next?"

D'Arby placed the deck on the middle of the table, but before he could pull his hand back, Jotaro spoke.

   " Now, draw a card from the deck. Which one it is doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Just don't show anyone. "

   " Very well. "

D'Arby reached for the deck and grabbed a card from the middle and placed the deck back at the center of the table. I didn't look at the card, and I kept my eyes on JoJo.

   " And now, I'll call it. It's the six of hearts. "

D'Arby lifted his card and I could see that JoJo was right. It was 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, six of clubs, king of clubs, and two of diamonds. "

D'Arby grabbed the first eight cards on the top deck and turned them around on the table. JoJo had guessed them all right.

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

   " I can rattle off the entire deck if I wanted to. Remember my request from earlier? "

Star Platinum formed at his side and he was starring straight at the card deck at the center of the table.

   " While you were shuffling the cards, Star Platinum was busy memorizing 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. "

   " 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. "

   " Okay. "

The air in the room felt tense and I knew that when the game started it would continue to be tense and the adrenaline would only pick up. D'Arby took the deck of cards off the table and set a box of cards on the table instead. The security seal wasn't broken yet, so it meant that he hadn't tampered with the cards. Jotaro broke the seal and took the cards out. D'Arby reached for a book on the small cart beside him and he was flipping through the pages without looking at them. Jotaro Laid all of the cards out on the poker table and looked at each one.

   " There's only one joker here. I don't see anything unusual. It's a normal deck. "

Jotaro took all of the cards and shuffled them over and over. D'Arby took his hand off the book and I realized that it wasn't a cheating technique he was using.

   ' He's seeing if he can read the page by touch and not sight. He's going to be hard to beat. '

I felt a sneeze coming on, and I turned my head to the side and sneezed in my elbow. I felt hot and clammy, and I knew I was sick, but I didn't want to distract the others from the game. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, because of the sneeze.