Black & White-English Version

15-Witch hunt, part 1

Chishiya took a step forward, then froze. "No way." He said.

I was still standing behind him as Kuina walked towards the arch.

"Wait!" Chishiya stopped her.

I followed his gaze and prayed with all my might that we weren't thinking the same thing and that it wasn't really happening.

Chishiya threw the bracelet over the arch and his was hit by the red laser. Kuina moved closer and saw the thin lasers, also red, that had formed under the arch. "Seriously?"

The three of us looked up into the blackness of the night and saw more red lasers descending from the sky, marking the perimeter of the Beach.

"I think we just found the 10 of Hearts." Chishiya said.

"Shit." I said. "What now?"

"Now we play, and remember that from now on the only ones we can trust are us. Don't talk to anyone." Chishiya was determined to win. And so was I.

"We've come this far, we won't give up now." I finished the sentence for him.

"Okay." Kuina said. "The Three Musketeers were three for a reason, right?"

We made our way to the lobby and Chishiya lifted his hood. I regretted not having my sweatshirt, otherwise it's exactly the same thing I would have done too. It was time to blend in.

We each took a cell phone and, as we walked towards the table, we saw a girl on the floor, dead, with a knife planted in her heart.

I exchanged a look with Chishiya and Kuina, even they didn't quite know what we would have to face. After that, we went back among the other people and Chishiya took my hand. I intertwined my fingers with his and that gave me strength.

We saw Usagi run and get to the cell phone's table and stop to look at the dead girl; meanwhile another girl yelled "Momoca!" And she crouched next to the victim, surely a friend of hers. "Momoca! Why?!"

The silence was broken by the metallic voice. This time it didn't say the degree of difficulty and the 10 of Hearts only appeared on the cell phone screens.

Game: Witch Hunt

Unlike usual, the voice went on to tell the rules of the Game as if it were some kind of fairy tale:

"The morderous witch who killed this girl is hiding amongst you in plain sight. The witch role is not limited to women. To clear the Game you must find the witch and burn him or her in the Fire of Judgement.

Time limit: 2 hours 

At that moment the big screen lit up with the words that nobody wanted to see: Game Start.

A boy looked out the window and yelled "There's a fire at the back of the building!"

The crowd expressed all their surprise to see that the bonfire was real and that the words of the metallic voice were not a metaphor.

I didn't understand why everyone was surprised, we were in a cruel world made of Games where you were killed if you weren't able to overcome them, and this was the bloody 10 of Hearts. Not even Chishiya and Kuina looked surprised.

"We have to find whoever murdered Momoca and burn them in the Fire of Judgment." Ann said, with all the calm in the world. Even she didn't seem surprised by the purpose of the Game.

"A witch hunt Game, huh? This ought to be good." Niragi said, walking towards the victim with that rifle of his still on his shoulder.

He walked over to Usagi and whispered something in her ear, then said, "All right, let's go witch hunting!"