𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑳𝑬𝑺𝑺 • Shuntaro Chishiya

• 5 •

"A lesson of trust"

"Wa-ait, what's that supposed to mean?" Takuya asked stuttering.

"Well, definitely not beginner luck for you." Sayaka tried to stay as calm as possible and also not show her emotions.

Even though she never played a heart game, she knew that everything could be used against her. Especially when she didn't know any of the players.

"Please enter the school and go into the first room on the right."

"C'mon." Sayaka pulled Takuya's hand and entered a pretty big classroom.

Both entered the Tokyo Metropolitan Minamikatsushika High School.

"Every player must sit on a chair."

Everyone did as said and Sayaka could notice, how many participants were clearly worried and scared. But she couldn't blame them. It was a Nine of Hearts game after all and she didn't know what to expect.

After everybody was sitting on a chair, some kind of automatic holder immediately injected all the players with a syringe.

"What is this?!" A few people screamed, but Sayaka just continued to be quiet and hide how confused she was.

She wasn't scared at all... more like disorientated, but she was determined to win the game at any cost.

"Stay calm and don't show any emotions." the girl ordered Takuya.

The boy nodded slightly.

"All 25 participants have been injected with a deadly poison. There's a metal box on the front desk with one cup with antidote. Rules: After five hours the poison will kill all the participants, if the antidote hasn't been taken till then. The metal box will open after four hours and 55 minutes. Till then every action is allowed: Killing, torturing..., however leaving the school is against the rules. Taking the box before time ends is also against the rules. The whole school is the gaming arena and there are plenty of weapons hidden in the building."

"So there's antidote only for one person!" A woman shouted desperate. "God, please, help me! I don't want to die!"

A screen turned on, on the front wall of the classroom.

"Time starts now."

04:59:58

The countdown started.

Right after that Sayaka took Takuya's hand and got out of the classroom.

"You know what's going to happen now, right?" the girl asked the boy.

"Everyone is going to start killing each other to guarantee the antidote. And five hours is pretty long." Takuya responded.

"That's right, you're pretty clever. But they are all way too dumb to understand that already now, so it will take some time. It's the best thing to go away as far as we can, like the third floor." Sayaka explained.

"Yeah, sure. Can I come with you then?"

"Fine, just don't annoy me, like you always do." Sayaka sighed and started climbing up the stairs.

"Ten minutes have passed." The female voice in the phone said.

Takuya just kept following Sayaka until she finally found the principal's office.

"I'm sure we could find some weapons in here." she explained.

The boy looked at Sayaka with wide opened eyes.

"You're not planning of killing someone, are you?" he asked shaking.

"If necessary." Sayaka chuckled. "Relax, I'm kidding. Someone might attack me... us."

Both entered the office and started searching the whole room.

After about five minutes Takuya sat down on the floor, giving up.

Nakamura just ignored him and continued looking for weapons. She was sure, that the other participants finally figured out, what had to be done, so nobody was safe.

But it still didn't make any sense to Sayaka. It was a hearts game and not spades or diamonds. So it couldn't be something like 'Who will be the last survivor?'.

From what she had heard, heart games manipulate people from the beginning on. They are full of betrayal and murder. In this game the strongest or smartest person would win, which didn't match with a heart game. A Nine of Hearts game.

Maybe the game master or whoever was behind this game, just wanted everyone to think that killing everyone was the task. In the rules it was never explained, what exactly had to be done.

"Yes." Sayaka whispered after taking out a gun out of the trash can. "And it's loaded. I guess, I was lucky."

"You know, I thought about this strange world and why we might be here. At least me." Takuya tried to start a conversation.
"You don't have to listen to me, but I just need to tell someone this."

Sayaka nodded.

"I'm a nerd, I admit it. And you might think 'What's so bad about that?'. Well the point is, I couldn't stand being on the second place. So once when I was the second best student on the final exams this year, I kind of ruined someone's life." Takuya stopped telling his story for a moment.

"You can continue." Sayaka smiled slightly. "We don't have anything better to do anyways."

"Okay, so um... on a class party I approached him and took him to another room, where I started choking him and I almost killed him, only if he didn't punch me in the face. After that I took a glass bottle and hit his head that caused him falling unconscious to the ground. Fortunately the ambulance was called, what saved his life but he lost a part of his memories." the boy explained in one breath.

Silence

"Brutal... How old are you again?" Sayaka commented after a while.

"15... and I think that it's karma that I'm here. And I trink I'm crazy."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Will we ever find out?"

"I deserve to die, I know."

"Believe me, the crimes that the people down there have committed are much worse. What do they deserve then?"

That was the way Sayaka always comforted people. "Others have it worse"

The girl put her earphones in her ears and leaned her head against the wall, listening to her favourite music.

Shots could be heard from the ground or first floor.

Takuya immediately got up, scared for his life.

"The killing has officially begun." Sayaka smirked slightly.