Honesty is the Best Policy! {Forces Edition}

Chapter 9: What's Wrong with Western Rulers

Honest had been dreaming about flying through outer space in a spaceship, but she woke up looking down at Shadow, who was looking up at her with his eyes partially open. Honest just stared at him with her eyes wide, confused at what was happening. Shadow blinked a few times, soon looking confused as well.

"Honest, what are you doing?" Honest just opened her eyes wider.

"Uh, I, I, uh, I don't-"

"I want to lay on Shadow, too!" Suddenly Honest and Shadow both closed their eyes as Akane jumped on top of Honest. "Wee!"

Shadow shoved them off and sat up in bed. He looked at them both, angry. "What are you two doing here?"

"My room was cold last night!" Honest explained. "Yeah!" Akane confirmed.

"Why don't you bug Sonic, then?" Honest and Akane looked at each other.

Honest smiled after a while. "We'd much more prefer to bug you, though!"

Shadow pulled the sheet above his head. "It's not even time to get up for school yet," came his muffled voice from underneath the sheet.

Honest looked over at Akane. "I have some videos to edit. Come on, Akane!"

Honest took off down the hallway before Akane could reply. Akane didn't think it would be fun to watch Honest work on editing videos for her music channel. She turned into her cat form and jumped on top of Shadow, curled up into a ball, and slept. Truth be known, Shadow didn't really feel bothered by Akane sleeping there as a cat. For some reason, it was only when she was in her Mobian form that Shadow felt threatened.

---

That day at school, one of the teachers was gone and they were using that period as a study hall. Honest and Akane were playing a game of cards by the window. Shadow saw them and walked over. "Can I play?"

Honest smiled up at him "Sure!" She gathered the cards from the table and shuffled them. Akane pulled the chair beside her out so Shadow could sit there while he played. The curtain blew out behind them as the wind outside blew in through the open window. The wind was chilly, but it didn't seem to affect Honest much, so he tried to ignore it. Didn't she know it was -3 out there?

Shadow received his share of cards, seven of them, and he scanned them for matches. No one ever played any other game than Go Fish, but no one really cared either, for Go Fish was the only game they needed in order to beat boredom.

Wait.

This wasn't the normal deck of Ace through King. What were these cards? One was a "Tuna" card, and another had his own face. One had Sonic's, and yet another had creepy, smiling ghosts all over it. "Honest, what kinds of cards are these?"

Honest laughed. "I was getting tired of Western rulers, you know? So I made my own deck of cards."

"Does anyone have a 4 of Noodles?" Akane asked, starting the game.

"I do!" Honest gave her an identical card which had a big, orange 4 on it along with pictures of bowls of noodles all over it.

"Does anyone have a Tuna of Ghosts?" Shadow looked at his Tuna. It had little stars around it. "I don't."

"Akane?" Akane was looking at her cards.

"Nope, sorry. Go Fish?" Honest sighed and drew a card from the stack.

It was Shadow's turn. "Does anyone have a 6 of..." He looked hard at the card, but he just couldn't figure out what it was. "What kind of card game is this?!" He stood up from the table.

"No! Don't go!" Honest exclaimed, grabbing his hand just before he could stomp off. "Let me see the card."

Shadow begrudgingly handed over the card. "Oh! This is a 6 of Cadets!"