Other than the stretched silence was the sound of cards being placed upon the floor as Mayakashi set up the game after shuffling the cards and handing them to you to shuffle for yourself so you wouldn't assume she was pulling any stunts.
You sat crossed legged infront of her, watching her impassively as you waited for her to finish.
Mayakashi reminded you of Johness, so similar but just different in their own ways.
They both had that sadistic glint in their eyes, and both took to that obsessive obsession with the thought of blood covering their hands.
You shivered as you remembered the unlucky numbers in her prison sentence. You weren't a superstitious person...but you couldn't help it.
Mayakashi clapped her hands as she finished setting the cards down. "Little one, why don't you go first?"
You nodded, sending her a glance before looking towards the cards neatly layed out before you.
You obviously couldn't predict what cards would match so you'd have to rely on luck... which you haven't had that much during the exam.
You kept eye contact with Mayakashi as you lifted one card, a red heart with the number four in the corner.
Mayakashi couldn't help but giggle, excitement evident as you moved to lift another card which revealed a black club with the number four.
Mayakashi licked her lips, "What bad luck to get two fours."
Mayakashi moved to lift a card, a red heart with the number five. She then lifted up a red diamond with the number seven.
The game continued like that, no clear pairs until before the tenth turn which was yours.
You had lifted up a pair of red diamonds, both six.
Mayakashi clapped loudly, a eerie smile in her face.
After that, Mayakashi made a pair of two black spades with the number eight.
You two continued to make pairs, seemingly never ending as you and Mayakashi made a single pair sometimes and other times multiple pairs.
It ended with Mayakashi making the last pair, you having made fourteen pairs and Mayakashi with thirty-eight.
You could hear nervous chatter from your friends, Leorio mostly speaking.
Mayakashi jumped up, causing you to put your neck in a uncomfortable position as you looked up at her.
She squealed, "I win!"
She peered down at you, "And I have the perfect punishment in mind."
There was tense silence before Mayakashi decided.
She pondered, "Little one, do you know of Russian roulette?"
You furrowed your eyebrows but nodded.
Mayakashi licked her lips, an ambiance of excitement oozing out of her, "Well that's my punishment for you. You'll receive a revolver with a single round in it and shoot yourself. Let's see how lucky you can be, shall we?"
At this point even Kurapika was hysterical as he shouted alongside Leorio for you to stop.
But you stood up, the tile next to you opening up and a column protruding with a revolver and a single bullet next to it.
You picked up the revolver, testing it's weight in your hand and checking the bullet chambers.
Mayakashi was literally beginning to shake, biting at her finger-not her nail but at her thumb as she eyed you.
You placed the bullet in the revolver, spun the cylinder and looked up at Mayakashi curiously. She never said where exactly you had to shoot yourself but it appeared she didn't care as she kept silent, watching you dangerously.
You placed the barrel against the side of your head, waited a moment and pulled the trigger.
A loud click resounded as the bullet didn't align with the barrel, instead switching to the next cartridge.
You sent a curious look over to your friends, Leorio staring wide eyed at you, Kurapika loudly exhaling in relief, Gon pumping his hand in the air in joy, Akaki clapping in support and Killua just stared with a empty expression.
You didn't dwell on their reactions, focusing on Mayakashi who had her head hung as she begun giggling aloud.
It started small, her giggling ranging from soft to near psychotic.
You lowered the revolver, setting it down on the column which retreated back into the platform.
Mayakashi clasped her hands together, "It looks like lady luck is on your side little one! Let's see how much longer she'll have mercy on you..."
With that, you sighed as Mayakashi took to shuffling the cards.
You two both sat down.
You eyed the corpse not that far from you, Johness's body not having been removed. But you ignored it, focusing on Mayakashi.
You kept your expression neutral, your thoughts running wild. It wasn't that hard to figure out her gimmick, but poor Mayakashi was too much into her ego to realize that her tricks wouldn't work on you. Perhaps you should be thankful you enjoyed puzzles when you were younger.
Mayakashi handed the now shuffled cards over to you to shuffle and you did so in under a minute.
This time, instead of Mayakashi setting the cards, you set down the cards.
You leaned back, "You can go first."
Mayakashi nodded, "How sweet from you little one!"
This time, Mayakashi picked up a black club with the number 7 and another black club but with the number 8.
She chuckled, a daunting glint in her eye, "So close.."
You picked up two pairs, a pair of black spades with the number 2 and a pair of red diamonds with the number 3.
Mayakashi cheered, "How lucky little one. Something tells me you're going to be... Very lucky this round."
You bit at your tongue, you already knew her motive and plan. She wanted you to win this round so she could see what punishment you had in mind for her.
However the only reason you were able to immediately make two pairs was because you had caught on to her trick. Now you just had to decide when to reveal that to her...
The game continued, the round ending in around ten minutes with Mayakashi having twenty-four pairs and you with twenty-eight.
Mayakashi grinned like a maniac, "Well done little one... Well done. And what punishment do you have in mind for me?"
You kept silent causing Mayakashi to get in your face as she prodded your forehead with her finger, her sharp nail digging into your skin, "What's going on in your head little one?"
You stood up, peering down at
Mayakashi who smirked up at you.
You hummed, "You really didn't think I wouldn't notice, did you Makiko?"
Mayakashi-or rather Makiko froze at her real name.
Her devious smirk turned to a open mouth of shock as she disbelievingly looked up at you.
You smiled, "Makiko, you shouldn't play such unfair games. You know your mother doesn't like them."
Makiko crawled backwards as you spoke, tears forming in her eyes.
You smirked, "You were extremely famous you know. A up and coming actress who killed her mother in rage after her mother attempted to stop her gambling addiction."
Makiko began clawing at her face, nails just barely breaking skin as she sobbed.
You sighed, "And I mean the way you killed her was really impressive. You completely disfigured her with just your nails. And after that, you tore off her nails and took them as your own. The nails you oh so cutely adorn is actually hers.. Right?"
Makiko just sobbed, refusing to meet your eyes as her hands covered them.
You smirked, walking up to her and forcibly removing her hands from her face and you looked her dead in the eye,"You shouldn't hide Makiko. After all, I have such a nice punishment for you."
Makiko pushed you away, attempting to gain back her dignity as she wiped at her tears and scowled, "What then brat?"
You pressed a finger against your cheek as you pretended to ponder before smirking at Makiko,"I want to tear those oh so precious nails of yours off."
Makiko stared at you in horror, "Y-you wo-wouldn't!"
You grinned, walking up to her, "I will, whether you want me to or not."
Makiko attempted to strike at you, however you easily caught her hand and twisted her arm behind her back and pushed her down to the ground and dug your knee into her back to keep her in place.
Makiko screamed in pain at both her arm injury and your knee digging into her back.
You grabbed her other arm which was clawing at the tiles below her and brought it behind her back.
In that same position, you violently and forcibly tore off her nails one by one.
You didn't stop, even as her fingers horribly bled, even as her screams were borderline ear drum shatter worthy and even as she begged and pleaded for you to stop.
You got off her as you finished, chucking her torn off nails to the side.
Makiko immediately curled into herself and she violently sobbed.
You ignored her as you took out your handkerchief from your pocket and cleaned your blood-soaked fingers. You discarded it to the side afterwards and it landed next to her nails.
You sat down and begun shuffling the cards, barely sending a glance towards Makiko who was still horribly loudly sobbing.
You finished shuffling abs setting down the cards in no time however by that time, Makiko was still in no condition to.. Attempt to play.
You sighed, leaning back on your hands, "Has I known you would've reached like this then I would've gone easier on you."
You shifted, leaning forward, "But to think you would've failed to finish the game you're so incredibly known for... Your mom would be so disappointed."
You smirked as Makiko froze, you didn't want to go as far as to hit her where it hurter the most but you had to do what you had to.
You couldn't carry the Homare name if you couldn't even do something like this.
« 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒕 𝒉-𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆, "𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞,𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡. 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭." 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙-𝒏𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐.»
Makiko got up from her fetal position, shoulders shaking along with her entire body. Her back faced you and she attempted to wipe at her tears but as she turned around, it proved that it only streaked blood over her face from her still bleeding fingers.
She glared at you, and perhaps had you been a normal teen girl then you would've screamed at the sight as she appeared as though she was a feral bloodthirsty animal.
She walked up to you, seating herself infront of you, "You bitch, just you try to win. And my punishment? I'll fucking kill you, I'll give you a gun fully loaded you bitch."
You only smiled, "And who shall go first?"
She snarled, "You can, try all you want but after you lose a pair then I'll win."
You smiled, picking up two cards at the same time which showed a match which caused Makiko's scowl to deepen.
As you continued choosing pairs, never once failing, you spoke confidently,"I wonder what fools you came upon for no one to have realized your trick."
Makiko just grunted in confusion, not understanding your words due to the high adrenaline she was high on.
As you continued making pairs, without any fails, Makiko become frustrated and confused at the amount of pairs you had accumulated until she stared wide mouthed at you.
You smirked, so she finally realized you knew.
She stuttered, "Y-you k-knew all-all along!"
You nodded, holding up your next pair to show the back if the card to Makiko. You carefully held the cards next to each other which showed the obvious... The back design of the cards matched like a puzzle interlocking.
Your smirk grew, " It wasn't that hard to notice. However I guess your victims didn't think to notice because of the distractions you would cause with your manipulation."
You spoke loudly, purposely to explain her trick in more detail, "The cards given are your own, carefully crafted with your own hands. You create a specific patten on the back to give the appearance of a expensive deck when in reality it's just a trick. You used these cards for this specific game, where the card that matched with another would have a connecting pattern that basically fit together like a puzzle. It's truly admirable because even I struggled to figure out which matched with which because of the complicated pattern but... Obviously as you can see I've solved that problem. "
Makiko stared in despair at all fifty-two pairs you had made.
You smiled, a little too innocently, "And just like that, I've won.
Makiko had her head hung down, bloody hands desperately gripping at her poor tatters of prison clothes.
You hummed, "And what punishment should I give you? Hmm..."
Makiko lifted up her head, a look of utter despair and desperation on her face. And it really didn't suit her, she had such a pretty face after all.
Makiko muttered, "I-I give u-up."
You froze at the tears running down her face, currently she looked akin to a child who was being thrown away by the only person they loved... Wasn't that you a long time ago?..
Makiko frustratedly shouted, "I give up! I surrender! Leave me alone!"
You nodded, "If you wish to then-"
Makiko got up and began scrambling towards and over the bridge to the prisoners and she practically threw herself against at the them, who had been standing near the edge to watch her match, to get through them as they had been blocking her way.
You got up, stretching your arms for a moment, and walked back to your group.
Immediately you were forced in a headlock by the one and only Akaki who was shouting in your ear, "WHOO! You really put her in her place!"
You huffed, still able to breathe but having a uncomfortable pressure on your chest due to the way Akaki headlocked you, "Thanks?"
Akaki refused to let go of you so you just had to awkwardly high five Gon and Killua who were the closest to you.
Gon grinned, "That was so cool Yasumi! I would never have noticed the difference on the back of the cards."
Killua nodded, "I would've preferred to kill her than play such a boring game", He stuck out his tongue in disgust.
Akaki finally let you go, which was rather abrupt which would've caused to you fall had not Killua grabbed you.
You smiled in thanks towards him, before nervously turning to Kurapika and Leorio.
You weren't sure how'd they react towards your... Violent approach towards Makiko.
Kurapika only nodded in congratulations, having a neutral expression, "Good job Yasumi. Now we have enough points to win."
You froze at that, completely having forgot however you had no time to focus on your urgent problem because Leorio slammed both hands on your shoulders.
He gave you a serious look before grinning, although you still noticed nervous sweat beading down his face, "As much as I dislike how you finished that off, I'm glad you aren't dead."
You froze, not expecting that as you thought he would've been the one to be scared of you but.. you suppose you can be wrong sometimes.
You grinned, "Happy I could help..."
You all kept silent fir a moment, awaiting for Lippo's instructions as a door opened to the side of the room and a bridge slowly connected from the middle platform to the door.
Lippo's voice rung out through the speakers, "Across the bridge, you'll find a room. You must spend the fifty hours you gambled away there."
Killua nodded to Gon, "Well let's go."
Gon smiled, nodding.
As everyone began walking over to the middle platform and the across the bridge, you stood at the back and gently tugged on Akaki's arm to stop her from following them.
Akaki looked back at you in confusion, "Huh? What's wrong?"
At Akaki's words, everyone slowly turned to look at you.
You smiled sadly, "This is where we split up. Remember we only joined you guys temporarily."
Kurapika's eyes lit up with realization, "Oh right, Lippo told us that when we were told we would have people joining us."
Gon's eyes turned sad, as though he was a kicked puppy, "Awwwww, so we'll only see each other again when we finish the trick tower?"
Akaki pouted as tears welled up in her eyes, "I'm gonna miss you guys, it's a shame we have to split up.."
With a crackle from the speakers, Lippo's voice spoke out again, "That's where you're wrong participant 165.
You and participant 166 have failed and will receive punishment."
Akaki screeched, "H-huh?!"
Leorio pointed at the speaker which placed right next to the camera watching you from the top corners of the room, "Oi! What the hell are you talking about?!"
You grabbed Leorio's arm and gently lowered it, "Similar to how you guys had your objective to win against the prisoners, I had my own- well me and Akaki.."
Akaki scoffed, "I-I didn't know about this!"
Killua's eyes narrowed at you, "So then what was your objective?"
You awkwardly laughed, "I kinda, had to make you guys fail.."
There was multiple verbal reactions, gasps and shouts.
You explained, "Me and Akaki were supposed to be split up and I was supposed to make you guys fail and by completing that then I'd receive immediate access to the bottom of the tower.. But now I've failed and well I don't know what'll happen to me and Akaki."
You turned to Akaki, frowning at her, "Especially since you weren't supposed to follow me. "
Akaki just looked to the side, ignoring your stare.
A crackle of static rung out, Lippo's voice followed, "As for the punishment, participant 165 will permanently join the majority rules group and participant 166 will begin the path of a trickster's tricks."
A door opened up on the opposite side of the room, a bridge connecting the entrance to the middle platform.
It was silent for a moment, before Akaki hugged you while faux sobbing.
She hiccuped," I'm gonna miss you! "
You lightly coughed, Akaki's grip becoming too tight,
"We- we'll see each other again."
You lightly hit her on the back to get her to let go and he hesitantly did.
You dry heaved for a second before getting into another tight hug by Leorio who became weepy, "Make it to the end safe Yasumi, you hear me?!"
You nodded, breathing deeply as he let go.
Thankfully Kurapika only nodded towards you, "Till the next time we meet, try to get down safely."
You grinned, however you promptly got jumped by Gon when you didn't expect it.
You stumbled for a second as Gon leaned his entire weight on you but you caught him, he grinned as he spoke, "Goodluck Yasumi! We'll miss you!"
Killua plucked Gon off you, slinging a arm around his shoulders, "Yeah, see you at the end."
You stepped back, sending one last smile towards everyone before turning around and walking off without turning back.
____________[fact/s num X]_____________
Yasumi feels no regret for what she did to Makiko but rather she feels sorry for how Makiko's life turned out.
Makiko shortly disappeared after her match with Yasumi and her body was found with her not breathing.
Akaki feels no resentment towards Yasumi for her actions, rather she just feels upset because she didn't get the chance to fight.
The mysterious person Yasumi was remembering has an important role in Yasumi's backstory.
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Word count : 3320
If you havent realized it already , « and » will be used to show a flashback. Also the person Yasumi was remembering has a font specifically for them.