A bullet moves at an astonishing speed of 330 meters a second.

Light travels almost a million times faster. The scorching hot scintilla of the backfire torrefied all those in its immediate range and the byproduct that was light acted almost like a flashbang.

The portly man collapsed to the ground, clutching his head in agony, incinerated by the misfire.

In the dim setting of the jungle, the illumination bewildered all those who had even a degree of retina exposure. It happened for almost a split second, a trivial amount- but it was just enough to allow the closed eye deductionist to get a running start.

Amidst the confusion, Isabelle was already a foot's length ahead of Edward in the sprint.

“IT WORKED!” She managed to convey in the mesial of her panting voice.

“Well did you actually think it wouldn’t?”

Moments prior, when Edward was imparting clandestinely into Isabelle’s ear, he whispered:

“This next turn..” he whispered as Isabelle whimpered to create some sort of concealment out of the cloth leftover

“Keep your eyes closed until you hear the ‘bang’ of the gun. When you do, run straight forward down the path without looking back.

“But what about you—”

“I will soon follow behind…”

“How did you know?!” Isabelle questioned as they ran, her makeshift clothing clearly not providing quite the concealment she was hoping for,

“How did you know that the bullet would be fired this round? And how in the world did you come out of that unscathed?!”

Edward smiled at the impeccable execution of his plan.

“First—” he lifted his index finger to make his point “The bullet never left the gun in the first place. It hit the stopper I had planted in it perfectly.”

“A stopper?”

“Oh yes, I clogged the barrel of the gun” Isabelle panted enthusiastically

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“But where did you find a stone hard enough to clog the barrel of the gun in this mossy forest?” This brought the sleuth to a simper

“It wasn’t a stone,” he smiled as he quickened his pace “I plugged it with that steel-tooth our spear friend was wearing as a pendent.”

“What!? When did you—” but before she could articulate the rest of her inquisition, a memory evoked in her mind. The time when the speared man attacked Edward out of the blue.

“You weren’t concentrating on fighting him… you had your eyes pinned on his tooth from the start!!”

Edward just smiled his omniscient smile. ‘Amazing! So Edward had already planned to play the Russian Roulette game from the very moment we met the tribe!’

Clearly fascinated in thought she couldn’t but help think of a further complexion. “But how were you able to plant that tooth so covertly, when all the tribal people had their eyes pinned around your throat?”

The sleuth chortled further but composed himself to an understandable answer

“I have you to thank for that.”

Isabelle’s face shone of confusion.

“During my last turn, you created quite the uproar.”

Isabelle’s face grew red as she recalled her clothes being torn away “How mean!” she beamed

“I ensure you, your distraction was perfectly timed, it provided me just enough time to plant the tooth. It only required a second, and with a little bit of sleight of hand, my plan was executed like cakewalk”

“So…” she contemplated

“Your goal was to never win in the first place…”

"Indeed, all we needed was a distraction to get away from that situation"

“But then... how could you have possibly known that the bullet would be fired in that very round? What would have happened if the gun would have backfired on you?”

The sleuth mocked her obliviousness to the facts and replied in a witty tone

“There was no bullet in the gun in the first place. Our rotund friend, planned to restock its barrel during his last turn. Unfortunately, I caught on during my first turn.”

“But how could you have possibly known that the gun was empty just from looking at the outside?”

Edward stared down at his hand. Isabelle followed his gaze.

“Although we might not have any knowledge of our past… our bodies still remember various things. Call it muscle memory, that documents the arts and techniques our bodies have encountered multiple times in the past. That turn, when I held the gun and looked down the barrel, I realized the gun was slightly lighter than it should have been, if it were not empty.

“Although the difference was insignificant, as it would seem to a normal person, to a trained professional, you learn the dissimilarity through repeated practice and usage of the firearm”

The string of events slowly began to fit together. And with every piece of the puzzle, it unraveled the ingenuousness of Edward’s quick thinking. But one piece was still left unfitted.

“But...wait...something doesn’t fit…” Isabelle came to a stop and stroked her chin in skepticism.

“Wait...what would have happened if the bullet had actually been in the gun during the first turn?”

Edward spoke in deference to her keen logic.

“If the bullet had actually been in the gun, as should have been in the case of fair Russian Roulette, then…” He paused to let the words soak in.

“Then...There would have been a one in six chance of me getting shot on the first turn.”

“WHAT!? Then you could have been killed!!”

“Indeed, but as you observed, even if there had been a bullet, the statistics would still have been in my favor”

“But...that would mean…”

“Yes… you finally seem to understand…” he gave her one last glance before continuing down the path.

“Had the portly man considered playing a fair game, he might have had a chance of winning, but as soon as the man with the gun concocted the idea of cheating…” Edward paused

“He lost the game before it had even begun”