𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑳𝑬𝑺𝑺 • Shuntaro Chishiya

• 2 •

"Death to idiots"

Sayaka stared at the heads of the two victims of the last round. Her eyes were wide opened. She expected everything but that.

"Holy crap." she whispered.

Now that she knew, what being eliminated meant, she focused even more because after all her life was on the line.

"No answer was given, so two random players were eliminated. The answer was the letter 'R'. Question three: I'm (usually) white and used for cutting and grinding. When I'm damaged, humans usually remove me or fill me. For most animals I am a useful tool."

That was actually a riddle, that Sayaka had already heard before, so she immediately gave the answer.

"A t..." she didn't get to finish, because the girl sitting right next to her was faster.

"A knife!" she screamed, which led to the sword above her head falling right through it.

"How fucking dumb are you!? You don't fill a knife and it isn't white! The answer is tooth!" shouted Sayaka.

The timer stopped.

Another teenage girl started sobbing and screaming the other girl's name, who probably was her friend.

"'Tooth' was the right answer. Question four: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?"

"Footsteps!" shouted Sayaka within the first two seconds.
Everyone looked kind of shocked but also relieved.

"'Footsteps' was the right answer. Question five: Always in you, Sometimes on you; If I surround you, I can kill you."

"I mean, we always have blood in ourselves." suggested the middle aged man that talked to Sayaka earlier.
"But it can't really kill you, can it?" said the old woman.

"I mean, everything can theoretically kill you." answered the remaining 'psychopath'.

After that, the two men and the old woman shouted the answer at the same time, which they noticed after a second, wasn't the best choice. They all ended up with a sword in their head, which made Sayaka curse loudly.

"I haven't seen anything more stupid in my whole life!" she shouted madly.

Unfortunately that incident distracted the remaining participants for a while, and the timer ended.

"Shit." cursed Sayaka.

"No answer was given, so two random players were eliminated. 'Water' was the right answer." said the voice in the monitor, after two participants were killed the same way, as the others before.

Only three players remaining, Sayaka understood that the chances of surviving without answering the last question right were 33%, so now her life was even more in danger than before.

"Question six: I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish."

After she heard the last question, Sayaka laughed loudly.

"Oh my gosh, that is seriously it. I expected something harder." she sighed in relief, "The answer is map."

"'Map' was the right answer. Congratulations to the three remaining players."

Sayaka could feel, how her hands were freed. She immediately got up and walked out of the building. Before she went back to her apartment, she noticed the card four of diamonds lying on the small table, where she took her phone from. Without really thinking about it, she took the card and made her way to her apartment.

It was already very late, so Sayaka went to bed right away.

For a moment she started thinking everything through. Maybe she would wake up the next morning in the normal world. Maybe all this was just a dream.

One thing was sure, it felt real. And Sayaka kind of liked it. Of course it was a pity, that so many people died during the last game, but it's not like it was her fault. Quite the opposite, she saved everyone that was still alive.

Sayaka chuckled.

"I didn't realize how dumb people can actually be." she whispered to herself before falling asleep.

•

She woke up early in the morning. Sayaka always needed only 5-6 hours of sleep to feel well-rested. She saw sleeping as a waste of time, but she knew that sleeping was necessary for the body to recover after the long day.

'You'll sleep enough in your grave.' her father always said.

That was pretty much the only useful thing, he ever taught her.

The girl got out of the bed and changed her clothes, which surprisingly were still in her closet, even in this strange world.

Afterwards she left her apartment, searching for some kind of supermarket nearby. When she arrived at one, Sayaka took a shopping cart and started throwing everything useful she could find inside. She found things like canned food, but also a knife, which could be used for self-defence.

Sayaka put everything in her backpack, when she was done. She decided to not go back to her apartment but explore Tokyo a bit, before joining another game this evening. She though, that it was stupid to wait until one's visa days are about to end, to play a game, because collecting more days could turn out to be useful, for example when someone has an injury and can't play for some time.

"I think someone's here." Sayaka heard a guy's voice.

She turned around and saw three guys her age coming from around the corner. Sayaka looked at them analyzing their behaviour. She was already ready to reach the knife that was on the side of her backpack.

"Hi! We don't want to hurt you or something!" the boy with blonde hair said.

"I'm Arisu, and these are Chota and Karube. We got here yesterday. How about you?" added Arisu.

"I'm Sayaka. I also got here yesterday." she answered quickly.

"Do you know where we could find some food? All the supermarkets we checked, didn't have any food, that was still good." asked Karube.

Sayaka just nodded and pointed at the shop she had just left a moment ago. Right after that she turned around again and started walking away.

"Wait!" shouted Arisu, "Don't you think, we could maybe stick together? You're one of the first people we met since yesterday and I think it's safer to be in a bigger group."

"It can also be dangerous, you know?" Sayaka turned around.

"Yes, of course. But maybe we could stick together just for like a few days, until we fully understand how everything works here. I think it would be safer." Arisu stated.

"Sure, why not?" Sayaka answered after a moment of silence, "I'm joining a game this evening. You can go with me if you want."

"Already!? Didn't you play a game just yesterday." Chota said immediately.

"Yes, I did. But it's dumb to wait until the last moment to play a game. Because, what if you get hurt and can't play for a longer time. So it's the best thing, to collect as many visa days, as possible. You understand my point, right?" The girl explained.

No one answered her question, instead they all went to the supermarket and took as much food, as they could.

"Let's explore the city." suggested Arisu.

"I hope, we'll get back to the normal world soon." Chota sighed.

"You do?" Sayaka asked, "I gotta say, the normal world is hella boring."

"Are you serious?! You'd rather play deadly games, than live a 'boring' life?"

The girl nodded.

"I'm sure there's no game I couldn't win."

"I like your confidence but you don't know that. I heard, that heart games can even force you to kill people and sometimes there's only one survivor." Karube said with a very serious voice.

"If you say so." Sayaka respondent, clearly not interested in Karube's words.