Time Flies When You Are Having Fun...(D.Gray-man x Reader)

Chapter 24 - No Funny Business

Authors note: I've been gone for a while, but now I am back! Recently dealing with medical issues that seem to plague my very existence, but I'm not going to let it stop me from writing! I just took a leave of absence to see my doctors and try to understand what was wrong. We still haven't figured it out, but I have some free time now and decided it would be good to post and get my writing out of my system. Above I posted a picture I did. I've been doing twitch streams while drawing for the fun of it if you want to check it out. CeladonTsarina is my twitch name. I'll stop delaying so you can get on with reading!

Kanda twists the key and the door jerks before slowly opening. He holds open the door as everyone begins to pour through at a rapid clip. I start to trail behind everyone as my thoughts begin to swirl inside my head. I hope it's not what I think it is. What do you mean? If it's what I think it is, we are going to have Tyki and Allen at each other's throats. I begin my journey through the door, and I emerge the threshold to find the exact scene as the series. An open room with large openings overlooking the Ark and a long wooden table is stretching the room. Road was sat down at the table waiting for our arrival. The only difference was the tension in the room and a deck of cards at one end of the table. Here we go... I glance over to find Tyki's typical grin adorned and a new playful eagerness in his eyes. Huh, maybe this won't be so bad. Tyki seems to be in a good mood. I see most everyone else hasn't caught on to what was going to go down so I walk over and plant myself down in the seat to the left of the head of the table. I watch as Tyki walks over the end of the table and announces to the group to take a seat. One by one everyone takes a seat at the table. On my left, Tyki stands and Allen sits down on my right. And in order from left to right down the rest of that side of the table is Lenalee, Lavi, Krory, and Chaoji. On the right of Tyki is Road with the twins and Skinn sitting to the left of her. Once everyone was sitting Tyki began.

"As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a card shark so for this room we will be playing Texas Hold'em. It will be a clean-cut game and so that no one has any 'advantages' we will have observers, one being an Exorcist and one being a Noah and those observers are essentially out of the game. We will play until one person is left and whose ever side they are on will lose. If the Exorcists win, you will all be set free with your innocence, if the Noah win, we get your innocence. It's as simple as that." He shuffled the deck in his hands absentmindedly until a voice broke the momentary silence. 

"Then what was the point of risking the Exorcist's innocence out there to only have it risked all here?!" Chaoji stood from his seat while slamming his hand on the table. Everyone glances over to him. 

"Why does that matter to you, you aren't losing anything?"  Road snarkily states with a wide grin. This only seems to piss off Chaoji more. 

 "I might not have anything to risk but I can be damn well pissed for my friends who will lose a piece of themselves!" The fire in his eyes burns with an impressive intensity. Tyki chuckles slightly before explaining. 

"You see, if any of the exorcists had lost in the tests we had, you would have been there would have been penalties to the player when you arrived here. Penalties such as, instead of receiving two cards, they would have received only one at the start and had to have built a hand with only one card. Since all of you passed each level none of you have penalties. Now, none of the Noah managed to stop a single one of you. Which means the Noah now have the penalty to burden." This seems to calm Chaoji enough for him to take his seat. Tyki turns his head down as he shuffles the cards once more. Looking up he surveys everyone's reactions including my own. He finds a bemused look on my face before he smiles and glances back at the other exorcists. "Now are their any more questions or instructions I need to state before we begin?" He states briefly while pausing his movements. No one makes any noticeable movements or noises which gives Tyki his answer. "Alright, pick your observer." Tyki walks over to stand between where the twins are seated and begins conversing with the other Noahs. The groups of Exorcists huddled around the table while remaining in their chairs. Allen speaks up first. 

"If we pick someone to be an observer we need someone honest, but also the best eye for catching cheaters." He states quickly and assuredly. I quickly pipe up.

"Yes ideally that would be good, but maybe we want to make the first observer someone who might have a harder time winning and getting out of the game." Most of our heads turn towards Krory and he quickly throws up his hands in mock surrender. 

"I know I wasn't good at that one time, but it was only because they were cheating! If we have someone watching it is all up to luck for this game?" He states with uncertainty. Maybe he is right then, we know Allen can win regardless so he needs to stay in, but who can we trust to be observant enough to catch the Noah's if they cheat? Us. We can just slow down time or turn back time slightly to double-check that no one is cheating. That's true, we might be the best candidate... Alright, let's do it!