Sofiane couldn’t work a smirk onto his face. It was hard enough just choking down the wad of spit in his mouth. He reached out a hand and Yuna shook it with her own rough, calloused hand that was twice his size. Without another word, she sat down and pulled out her cards.

Her personal bodyguards swarmed around her like a protective curtain, forcing spectators behind her to shuffle over to the other side of the parlor in a mass migration of falling chairs and dropped glasses. If the tournament organizers wanted a narrative, they had one.

Sofiane turned his internal ears away from the fight-or-flight reflex screaming at him to run away and towards the martini telling him to talk shit.

“So, the big bad rebel girl finally wants a piece of the action, huh?” Sofiane said, riffle-shuffling his cards. “You gambling with your army’s treasury? Be happy to lift it from you, mon cheri.”

Yuna grunted. “If you have the cash to put up. I’m wagering 10 million Ying.”

Sofiane coughed. He didn’t have that even with the money Daisy gave him to bet with.

“Don’t have the money? That’s unfortunate. How about you put something up as collateral?” she said, laying her sheathed katanas down on the table.

“Like what?”

It was Yuna’s turn to grin maliciously. “Like you. I need a new punching bag to train on, and you look… satisfying.”

Sofiane shuddered. Nothing was really at stake here besides, well, everything. He could safely say yes since the game was really about finding out if she took the papers. Once they’d done that, Daisy could swoop in to bail him out even if he lost. Which he wouldn’t, because he was a damn card shark. Or so the martini was telling him.

“Deal,” Sofiane said, slapping his deck down.

Fangs punctuated Yuna’s smile. “Sounds good. Best of three?”

“Works for me.”

Sofiane glanced over at Shuixing who was trembling in fear.

“Easy, Shui, we’ve got this,” Sofiane said.

“Yeah!” Natsuko said, hopping off the neighboring table and wobbling on one foot for a second. “Take the stats away and she’s just an edgy dork like Pechorin.”

Yuna didn’t react. She didn’t even look in Natsuko’s direction. Her full and complete focus was on Sofiane and his cards.

“Draw,” she ordered.

He gulped and drew his starting cards. They had scoped out her deck, he knew exactly what she had: A Fire-Metal-Wind-Wood doubling deck. Her win condition was slapping a bunch of bonuses down on her army of Monsters and using spells to double everything until there were too many numbers to count. Sofiane tried to recall the counterplay and strategies he and Shuixing had come up with, but doing that while also trying to figure out how to use his voice, then finesse her into revealing what she knew about the papers, all while being so hammered that there were three of her in front of him, was not easy.

“You enjoy your liquor,” Yuna said.

“As much as the next Hero,” he said.

“That’s saying something next to her,” Yuna said, pointing at Natsuko with a clawed finger. “But it’s disgraceful. You look pathetic. When I capture Shikijima for the people, intoxication will be banned.”

“Oof, sucks for them, non?” Sofiane said, deciding which Elemental Font he wanted to open with. A second later the gears turned. He needed to prod at her and see what came out. “Not that you ever will, of course. You know the Yishang won’t let you.”

“It might not be up to them.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Sofiane said, laying down a Lightning Font and passing his turn.

Yuna said nothing for a moment as she examined her cards. Shuixing was now paying rapt attention. Pechorin was also focused, but his attention was on Natsuko swaying on her feet in case she fell over.

“Heroes overestimate the Yishang and underestimate themselves,” Yuna said. “We take the Yishang at their word that they’re so powerful and mighty, and that they’re the ones doing all the re-summoning. They want us to think we’re dolls for them and the Celestials to play with. That we have no power. Except… we do.”

She played a Fire Font, used it to play a ramping artifact, and gestured for his turn.

Sofiane made a raspberry. “That’s not a plan, that’s a schizo rant. No one cares.”

Yuna snarled. “Best mind your tongue, girly boy, or I’ll carve it out of your mouth.”

“What a way to ask for a lil’ smooch,” Sofiane said, blowing her an air kiss.

While Sofiane and Yuna bantered, Natsuko caught sight of a little cloud floating through the parlor hall and out to the plaza outside. She stood up and grabbed the neck of her wine bottle.

“Natsu, what are you doing?” Shui asked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Going fox hunting,” she said. “I’m finally gonna find out his little secrets!”

“W-What? Wait no!”

Shuixing moved to stop Natsuko, but her friend broke into a drunken stumble through the crowd. As she made to follow, Sofiane called out.

“Uhh… Shui? Little help over here.”

“Need your little birdy to help, huh? Maggot,” Yuna sneered. Shui looked over. Yuna was playing something that she hadn’t had in her deck when they were scouting her. Shuixing glanced between the card table and the flash of red kimono pinging its way through the pachinko machine of the crowd.

“Pechorin, go grab her before she does something stupid,” Shui said.

“On it,” Pechorin said, forcing his way through the crowd. When he tried to move past a Hero, they elbowed him back and knocked him to the floor with their superior stats. Shuixing’s stress was boiling hard enough she could’ve activated her Desperation Art if she thought it would help.

Instead she slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath. “Calm down, Shui. Calm down. It’s time to concentrate.”

She sat back down beside Sofiane and started analyzing the card Yuna had played. It was a magic-immune, indestructible monster called Harmless Pebble that dealt one damage, but doubled its damage every turn. It was a ticking time bomb, in other words. Even with everything else on the board staying the same, it would be five turns before Sofiane lost.

“Gonna enjoy playing with you, pincushion,” Yuna said, caressing her swords.

“Shui? What’s the play? Please tell me there’s a play,” Sofiane said.

Shuixing pushed her glasses up, the mental engagement focusing her attention. Anxiousness faded into the background along with any thought of recovering her papers. She wanted to win.

Shuixing leaned into Sofiane and whispered. “Draw into Sanguine Agreement, the hex that makes your monsters not deal or take damage and play it against Yuna. Her counters are all rebound spells, but it doesn’t matter because it will work regardless of whether it hits you or her. Focus on card draw and defense for now.”

Sincere, teary-eyed gratitude filled Sofiane’s eyes as he grasped Shui’s hands. “Merci, Madame Shuixing! Merci beaucoup!”

Following her advice, on the turn before Harmless Pebble would have finished the game, Sofiane drew into Sanguine Agreement, played it, had it bounce against one of Yuna’s rebounds, and had a Lightning Guard monster on his own side of the board cursed with an inability to take or deal damage. In other words, it didn’t matter how dangerous Harmless Pebble got, the Lightning Guard could soak up every bit of it.

Yuna snarled. “Maybe four-eyes ought to be the one playing me instead.”

“Maybe,” Sofiane said. “But she’s not. Your move, O future empress of Shikijima.”

She slammed the table, jumbling the cards. “I will not be an empress! The Shikijiman people will be free to choose their own rulers, and no one will decide for them! Not the Imperial Clan, not the Heroes, and not the Yishang.”

Pulling from the reservoir of confidence that the cards had given her, Shuixing straightened her back. “How do you intend to do that?”

Yuna’s eyes drifted to where Zhidao had recently been floating. “None of your business.”

“It wouldn’t have to do with dimension-jumping, would it?” Shui asked.

Sofiane choked on his spit, grabbing a napkin to cover his mouth. To Shuixing’s dismay, Yuna’s reaction was the absolute worst one she could possibly have: Confusion.

“What? No. The will of the people will make itself known and throw open the gates of the imperial compound for our advancing army. We have no need to sneak assassins through walls which will tumble down before us,” Yuna said.

Yuna’s look of confusion was too authentic, so too was her confidence in her army’s infallibility. There was no doubt in Shuixing’s mind and, by the look she shared with Sofiane, there was none in his either—Yuna hadn’t stolen the papers. She needed to go find Natsuko and Pechorin.

As Shui stood up, a wave of excitement and worry rippled through the crowd. Yuna and Sofiane stopped playing. Without being able to make words out of the crowd noise, something told Shuixing to pull up the Use-Rankings chart. The total read 188.

~~~

“Come out, come out, wherever you are! Dumbass fox,” Natsuko said, staggering sideways into a card game in progress and knocking over the table before righting herself.

Soju was a hell of a drink. How many had she had? Two at the restaurant, plus what she’d been drinking before that, and then another at the card parlor. Insane as it was to even consider, she wondered if Shuixing was right about the whole “drinking too much” thing.

Catching a glimpse of something peaches-and-cream colored, Natsuko dashed off around the side of the building, away from the plaza and towards a decorative flower garden near the Card Parlor’s circular porch. The hedges around the perimeter of the garden muffled the crowd, dulling them to an ambient hum beneath the gurgling of a small fountain. On a stone bench surrounded by purple peony bushes sat a figure in a gray coat and golden epaulets.

“Shrike? ‘Zat you?” Natsuko called out, ruining the serene quiet.

“Yes, it is. You’re one of Sofiane’s friends, right?”

He stood up and thrust out a hand for her to shake. She gave him a quick, hard, elbow-jarring return shake that he took in stride.

“Natsuko. You see a fox go floatin’ through here a second ago?”

“A fox? You mean Zhidao? Uh… yeah, actually, he went—” Shrike whistled and pointed directly up with a waggle of his finger.

“Damn!”

Natsuko stroked her chin, considering whether it was worth it to try to use Fire Gale to leap up the building. Ordinarily it was a bad idea because it was not an easy spell to use for mobility and her coordination wasn’t great to begin with. However, alcohol made her more competent than usual.

“Hey, wait, weren’t you supposed to be hanging with your buddies?” Natsuko asked.

“They’re inside. They wanted to get some drinking in but I don’t drink, so I told them I’d meet them out here,” Shrike said.

“That’s rough dude.”

“It’s not a big deal, they’re just grabbing a drink.”

“No, I mean the not drinking part.”

He laughed and shrugged. “I don’t need it. If anything, the few times I’ve had a drink I just felt all scattered and wanted my focus back.”

“Me? I drink to get focused,” Natsuko said. “Watch this, I’m gonna leap up this friggin’ tower.”

Natsuko activated Fire Gale and fire erupted beneath her feet, launching her up towards the second floor roof which she missed by several feet. Before returning to the ground, she heard a weird thunk, then another as she landed back on the ground.

“Ow,” Natsuko said, pulling herself up from bruised knees.

As she looked up, she saw Shrike was gone, or more accurately, was a jagged ball of flashing polygons sliding beneath the ground. Where he’d been standing there was now a dark figure holding a metal rod, the end bent into a strange tangle of shapes and angles.