I furrowed my brow. “You’re saying we can just make something up? Why even bother having a penalty for losing, in that case?”
“Look, I’m only trying to be considerate here, all right? I wanna make sure this is a fun and comfortable playing experience for all three of us.”
I wondered if I could take this statement at face value. Knowing Sera, he had to have some sort of master plan here—but I also couldn’t see how these terms could be of any real detriment to us, assuming we said some random bullcrap whenever we lost.
“Sure, why not?” Ushio said, beating me to the punch. “If lying’s fair game, then I don’t have a problem with it.”
“Well, if Ushio’s fine with it, then I guess I am too.”
“Great!” Sera said with a suggestive smirk. “We’ll go with that, then. All right—now who’s ready to play some cards?!”
At this invitation, I threw my first card down emphatically onto the playing field. Even if the penalty wasn’t actually a threat, I still didn’t want to lose to the likes of Sera.
I was gonna beat this schmuck if it was the last thing I did.
The game was rapidly approaching its climax, with only a few cards left in each player’s hand. Sera played the eight of diamonds, clearing the playing field, then started a new trick with the five of spades. Next it was my turn, and I could finally see a route to victory. I slapped down a joker—which only the three of spades could beat.
“Pass,” said Ushio.
“Same,” said Sera.
“Okay, sweet!” I exclaimed. It was all over now; I threw down the four sixes I’d been holding on to. “Take that! Revolution! And now I’ll clear the field with an eight of my own, then finish off with a pair of fives! Boom, I win!”
“You’re really getting into this, Sakuma,” Ushio mumbled.
I paid her no mind as I basked in the glow of victory. That had been a pretty perfect round, if I did say so myself. I hadn’t played President in so long, I almost forgot just how fun it could be. Obviously, I wished Sera hadn’t invited himself to join us, but otherwise this was pretty much the ideal class trip hotel room pastime I’d been looking for. At least for now.
Ushio completed a trick with the two of diamonds followed by the seven of diamonds, leaving her with no cards remaining in her hand. “I’m out.”
Per the rules of the game, this made Sera the Scum for this round.
“Aw, shucks,” he said. “Looks like I lost.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” I said. “Go on, then. Tell us your ‘secret,’ big guy. And try to make it sound really convincing for us while you’re at it—even though we all know it’ll just be another one of your lies.”
I was definitely leaning in to my role as the victor, but given all the teasing I’d put up with from Sera over the past year, I felt like a little payback was warranted.
“Yeah, all right,” he said. “Fair’s fair. I’ll tell you a secret, don’t worry.”
Sera set his cards down and looked straight at me and Ushio. I had every confidence that his “secret” would be a complete load of bull, but I braced myself all the same. It was odd that he seemed to have one locked and loaded in advance as the person who suggested the penalty to begin with. He was definitely up to something.
Sera loudly cleared his throat, then confessed, “I don’t plan on pursuing Ushio anymore.”
Huh?
I could almost feel a giant question mark appear over my head. That was his secret? Fib or not, it didn’t even make any sense; it did nothing to offend or provoke us, and it wasn’t even formatted like a secret in the first place—it was more like a statement of intent. About the only thing it did accomplish was to make me feel a momentary sense of relief, even if I knew he was probably feeding us a line.
“Wow, cool secret,” I said. “Anyway, I think we’re done here.”
“Whaddya mean?” said Sera. “We’ve still got plenty of time before lights-out, don’t we? C’mon, let’s play another round!”
Sera gathered up the cards and started shuffling them up again with a look of feigned innocence. It was true that we had time for at least a few more rounds, but since I still couldn’t tell what Sera was after here, I felt distinctly uneasy.
“What do you think, Ushio?”
She stared at Sera with a distinctly unamused expression as he shuffled. It seemed she had her own misgivings about this as well.
“I suppose we can play a bit more,” she said. “Hasn’t done us any harm yet.”
“All right, if you say so…”
And so began our second round, with Sera starting us off this time since he lost the last round. Most variations of the game would typically apply various other handicaps and penalties based on who placed where in the previous round, but we’d agreed to play without those stipulations for now. I glanced down at my hand; I had both jokers this time. It’d be pretty hard to lose like this—and sure enough, the game flew right by, and I emerged as the runaway victor as I’d expected.
“I’m out,” I said, playing my last card.
My second win in a row, though it didn’t feel quite as sweet as the first. Ushio finished next, with Sera coming in last. It was exactly the same result as the first round.
“Aren’t you two having a lucky night?” said Sera, slouching as he tossed his cards down on the pile. I could tell he was putting on an act, though; while it was true that my luck had been pretty great so far, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all according to Sera’s plan. Though as for why he might suggest we add a penalty for losing, only to deliberately lose each round himself, I hadn’t the slightest clue. Perhaps his next “secret” would shed some light on that mystery.
Sera cleared his throat again, and out it came.
“Now it’s Natsuki-chan I wanna go out with.”
A jolt of rage shot through my entire body like a lightning bolt.
Immediately, I understood the penalty thing had only been a pretext. All this rabble-rouser wanted was an excuse to say random incendiary nonsense right to our faces, without any warnings or repercussions, because it was presented as a “punishment” for losing the game. And he’d totally gotten away with it too—his plan was a complete success. Before I even realized it, I’d slid off the bed and jumped to my feet.
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said. “You have to go now.”
“But we’ve only played two rounds so far!” Sera protested.
“Yeah, and now you’re getting on my nerves, so it’s time for you to leave. I don’t even care if what you said just now is true or not—you clearly chose to say it purely because you knew it would get a rise out of me, so I’m not interested in playing with you anymore. Or being in the same room, for that matter. Now get out.”
“Sheesh, no need to get so heated, bud… Isn’t telling each other which guys or girls we’ve got crushes on, like, a quintessential part of any late-night hangout on a high school class trip? And why are you getting so defensive over Natsuki-chan, anyhow? I mean, it’s not like you’re her boyfriend or anything.”
“I don’t have to be to want to protect her from a sleazeball like you.”
“Wow, so you think she’s so stupid and gullible that she might fall for a ‘sleazeball’ if she didn’t have you to protect her, huh? Some friend you are.”
“Enough with the cheap digs. This isn’t even your room, so we’re not obligated to keep entertaining you and your bullcrap… Isn’t that right?”
I called on Ushio for backup, knowing she surely felt the same. She had to be just as livid about him bringing up Hoshihara’s name to get our goat as I was, even if she was doing a much better job of concealing her anger.
“Sera,” she said, lowering her voice with a sharp glare. “If you say anything like that again, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Yeah, that’s right! You tell him, Ushio…
“Wait, huh?” I gaped at her.
“Again”…? Was she really planning to keep playing cards with this asshole? No, surely not, I thought as I looked over at her—only to find that she was sitting there with a completely placid look on her face, waiting for the next hand to be dealt.
You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?
“Well, well, well…” said Sera, apparently as surprised as I was. “All righty, then.”
“Uh, are you sure about this, Ushio?” I asked. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea to keep playing with this guy.”
“Shuffle the cards, Sera.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Wait… Did she just completely ignore me?
But as I sat there at a loss for words, Ushio leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Just lose on purpose.”
At first, I didn’t quite grasp what she was saying. But even after it clicked a few moments later, I was still a little perplexed. I could see how losing on purpose would prevent Sera from having any more opportunities to say things that might provoke us—that part I understood. But in that case, why were we still playing along with his little game at all? Why not just kick him out of the room and be done with it? Especially when it wasn’t like our opponent was wearing a muzzle or anything; Sera could just as easily say whatever he wanted to say whether he lost or not.
The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.
“Okay, time for round three!” said Sera.
Before I could figure out what Ushio might be thinking, the cards were shuffled and dealt once more. It seemed I had no choice but to go along with it for now. I’d have to trust her judgment; perhaps she’d devised some sort of trap for Sera or something.