Chapter Three: A Game At Night Title: Chronicles of Time
“So, I’ll explain the rules of the game, everyone ready?” Natsumi said, looking around the table. They all nodded, and she continued. “We three,” she gestured towards the siblings and herself, “already know the rules, but I’ll explain it again since we’ve got a newcomer.”
“Can’t he just watch us play instead?” Sora asked.
“No!” Himari and Natsumi shouted together, in sync.
“You see, we have to make sure that Yuu also feels like one of us.” Himari explained while Natsumi nodded her head in agreement behind her as if this was all planned out.
“So, in order to do that, we decided to play the game.” Natsumi added on dramatically.
“You don’t have to do that, I don’t really care to be honest.” Yuu shrugged, his hand inched toward a pack of pocky but only to be slapped away. “You could just hand me these snacks and I’ll be fine with just that. It’s not as if I wanted to be one of you either way.”
“I kind of get what you mean by how he’s not as he seems,” Himari whispered into Natsumi’s ear.
“I told you!” Natsumi whispered back.
Yuu coughed. “You know, Natsumi once broke someone’s limited edition One Piece–”
“Okay, it’s time for you to shut up.” Natsumi clamped her hand over his mouth and smiled nervously at Sora who looked at them cluelessly while patting Koru’s fur.
“What’s up?” He said, tilting his head when he saw her anxiousness.
After confirming that he didn’t hear anything, Natsumi grabbed Yuu by the arm and dragged him outside.
“You, how do you know that?” She hissed, closing her bedroom door behind her.
“Doesn’t mean that because I’ve been asleep, I can’t hear everything inside this house. I was conscious enough to hear that loud crack of a figure and a “Oh crap, Sora’s gonna kill me for breaking his limited edition One Piece figure”, honey.”
“Don’t call me that!” She smacked him on the arm.
“I advise you to not use violence on a man that could blackmail you any second.” He smirked and she stopped launching punches at him. “I know everything about you. Your three sizes” he earned a tiny slap with a glare for that, “and the fact that you fantasize about your future with hot dreamy boys at night, and you’d kick and scream in excitement. Mind you, that was annoying but amusing to hear. Does it thrill you to dream about handsome men when you could’ve awakened me earlier?”
Her face was as red as a tomato. “I-I...I wish I hadn’t awoken you at all!”
“How come? I’m the hottest guy in the entire world, and you prefer your fake dream boys instead of me? A real life hot guy?”
She stayed silent, screaming curses at his handsome face inside her mind.
‘Oh, I’ll ruin his pretty face so he'll shut up!’ She swore to herself. They went back into the room with the two siblings staring at them with curiosity.
“What’d you talk about?” Sora interrogated suspiciously.
“Nothing,” Natsumi replied automatically. “Then, let’s get started. You see here, we have different textbooks in front of us,” she pointed to the hard covered books in front of each of them, “and we’ll use these to ask each other textbook questions. Now, there’s going to be a cup filled with popsicle sticks and each one has a number on it which leads to...our board of punishments!”
On que, her friend pulled out a white board with lists of punishments.
“So, this is how it’s going to go: you pick someone and ask them a question. If they get it wrong, you can choose any punishment you want for them–but you’re not using the board. For example, if Himari gets it wrong, I can make her eat a whole pack of chips in five seconds if I want to. It’s all going to be time limited, so if you fail, you have to pick up another punishment from the cup.”
“So, the punishment has something to do with the snacks placed here?” Yuu pointed to the piles of food.
“Yes, since if we make someone spill out secrets, we don’t know what’s going to happen.” She gave Yuu a look. “We’re limiting it to food related punishments only, besides for the ultimate punishment. However, if the person you asked gets the answer right, you’ll have to take a popsicle stick, and do whatever is listed underneath the number you have. We made it this way because almost nobody gets the answers wrong, which is no fun because we don’t get to see anyone die–I mean, get punished. Himari, you can take over, I’m thirsty.”
“Okay, so like she said–the ultimate punishment. It’s something that we all decide together.” Himari took out a paper and a pencil out of nowhere. “So we discuss amongst ourselves and finalize that last punishment, and we’re done. Whoever loses the most receives the ultimate punishment. We’ll be keeping the score on the bottom of the white board–any questions?”
The others shook their heads.
“Good, then let’s get some suggestions.”
“How about whoever gets landed with the ultimate punishment has to clean the house for a whole month?” Sora said, looking at the others for approval.
“Yeah, but if you get landed with that, you’ll just grumble and curse at us.” Natsumi chirped up. “So that’s no good.”
“How about whoever receives the punishment has to do all of our homeworks?” Himari piped up.
“Do you want us to die?” Sora shot her a look.
“Oh come on, you can handle it.” Natsumi said with a smirk.
“Why do you sound so confident that I’ll fail?” He whined, feeling discriminated against. “I don’t always lose!”
“So then, any other suggestions?”
“How about...whoever loses has to tell a story.” Yuu spoke up which startled them since he’s been silent the whole time. “There’s no loss in that. We just have to tell an interesting story. Besides, shouldn't we go easy since it's the first time I'm playing?”
They exchanged glances then nodded in agreement.
“Who’ll go first?” Natsumi looked around eagerly for a volunteer.
“I’ll go first! I choose Himari.” Sora grinned devilishly inwardly while plastering an innocent smile on his face. He flipped the pages of his book and found a pleasing question. “When did Hirihoto rule, and when did his life expire?”
“He started ruling in 1926, and died in 1989.” Himari answered correctly, not fazed at all.
He frowned disappointedly. “It’s no fun with you since you never get things wrong.” He took a popsicle stick from the cup and got the number four. “Chug a whole bottle of ramune and...eat four mini powdered donuts in fifteen seconds? You’re kidding me.”
“C’mon, time to get this over with.” Natsumi slid a pack of powdered donuts to him with a cheerful smile, and Yuu popped a bottle of ramune and gave it to him while Himari took out a small timer. “Drink up!”
He gulped the bottle of fizzy soda down, feeling his stomach bubble. Tiny streams of soda drizzled down from his chin, and made his fuzzy light blue sweater wet. “Ugh.”
“Now the donuts!”
“Hold on–” a donut was shoved into his mouth and his face turned pale as he chewed quickly. “Ughhh! I feel like throwing up. That did not go down well.”
The others snickered at him.
“Who’s next?”
“We should’ve let Yuu go first since he’s the newcomer.” Himari realized. “Then Yuu, how about you ask Natsumi a question?”
“Sure…let’s see…ah! How many chromosomes are in a human body?”
“46.” She smiled proudly and handed him the popsicle cup. “Choose.”
He fished out the number 3 and looked at her with a sense of dread. “Oh no…”
“Let’s see…whip cream?” She turned to him with a sly smile. She grabbed his hands and personally squeezed cream onto them. He tried to jerk away but it made her hold onto his hand even more firmly. Himari tried not to laugh while Sora looked at him pitifully. “I’ll make you sully that face you’re so proud of! Oh yeah I will!”
He gulped at the 3 inch mountain on his palm. He couldn’t back out with the others looking at him like a hawk. It’s not that he couldn’t use magic but…
“Go on!” She egged him on. He looked at it hesitantly and lifted his hand close to his face but her instinct got the best of her patience and she leaned forward and slapped his hand. There was a loud splat and excess cream fell on the table and over his clothes. There was a deep silence.
“...damn you!” He scowled. The others bursted out laughing at the spectacle.
“S-sorry!” Natsumi laughed uncontrollably. Himari rolled around beside her and Sora covered his mouth but it couldn’t hide his trembling smile.
He felt furious and shamed, but an idea struck him. He took her hand gently which made her pause and brought it towards his lips and licked the drops of cream that fell on her. “You got some cream on you, I’ll help you clean it up.”
Her eyes zoomed in at his tongue playing around with the tips of her fingers. She could feel his hot breath pouncing on her skin and his sticky saliva wrapped around her. She shuddered and yanked her hand away, her face red.
“W-what was that for?”
“Nothing, I was just simply helping my lov–” A pillow was thrown at his face before he could even finish what he was about to say.
Sora gaped at them while Himari laughed even more. “S-stop teasing her! S-she’s too innocent!”
***
“I can’t...do this anymore.” groaned Yuu, about to faint from consuming too much junk. “Ugh, who created this game?”
They avoided each other’s eyes which made Yuu sigh in disbelief.
“Himari started it,” Sora ratted out, sweeping the empty bags of chips into a large garbage bag. Himari elbowed him, and threw a flimsy plastic at him but it drifted towards the opposite direction. “You missed.”
“Oh, but I won’t miss this time, snitch.” She grabbed a bottle of ramune and aimed it at him, ready to throw. Natsumi quickly snatched it out of her hands and placed it in the bag filled with glass bottles.
“Now, now. Let’s not be mad, since snitches get stitches.” Natsumi comforted her.
“Hey!” Sora glared at her.
The two boys hauled the trash bags downstairs and threw it into the garbage can in the front yard, then headed back into the house; leaving the girls to pack all the unopened snacks away.
“So, Yuu, you lost,” Natsumi brought up slowly, her voice fraught with humor, “which was totally unexpected, and unpredictable.”
“Must’ve really damaged your pride, huh?” Himari eyes flickered towards him playfully. Over the past hour, she came to realize that Yuu wasn’t the handsome gentlemen she thought he’d be. Natsumi was right, he was very wicked.
“Whatever. Much ventured, much lost.” Yuu quoted.
“Wise man, what is your story?” Sora asked wistfully, stroking an imaginary beard.
Yuu sighed, and waved them closer. “Huddle in children, huddle in. I’ll tell you a story from long ago…”
***
“You know, in that story Yuu told, it felt really familiar.” Natsumi said, trying to recall where she heard it from. “I don’t know why, but it’s as if I’ve heard of it before...I just don’t know where!”
Himari patted her on the back while tossing her pillow aside on the bed. “Well, take your time. We’re still young, so there’s plenty of time to do some old thinking.”
“I’m going to go brush my teeth.” Natsumi grumbled. “And I thought that you would help.”
Her friend laughed lightly behind her as she left the room with a huff. After coming out of the bathroom, she was lost in thought and walked blindly, bumping into Yuu.
“What’s up with you?” He smirked.
“Nothing, I was just thinking about that story you told us.” Natsumi replied casually. Yuu, who was a bit surprised by her answer, quickly straightened himself up. “I feel like I heard it before.”
“Well, you must’ve heard it from a bedtime story or something.” he said and patted her head. “It’s time for you to head to sleep.”
“I am going to sleep!” Natsumi declared, shrugging off his touch. First it's Himari calling her old, now it's Yuu who’s treating her as a young child? Sure, it must’ve been payback for teasing him earlier, but she was not in the mood for any of that. Something felt so familiar about that story, but she just couldn’t figure it out! Just why is it irritating her?
“How’d it go?” Himari looked up from her phone and closed it. “I heard Yuu’s voice outside just now and yours, something happened?”
“No,” Natsumi grumbled and climbed into bed, “nothing happened.”
“Okay, okay, time for us to sleep. Tuck in.”
The room went dark and after a few minutes, she could hear Himari’s soft breathing beside her. She stared up at the ceiling and sighed. Something was strange. She felt...so different when Yuu’s existence arrived into her world. It honestly felt like a dream, after all, magicians aren’t real. Magic isn’t real. But after seeing his proof, she couldn’t deny that fact anymore.
“This isn’t real…” she mumbled underneath her breath, careful to not wake her best friend. “Must be a dream…”
“What’s a dream?”
The sudden voice startled her and she stifled her scream. His long black hair swayed on top of her as he leaned in.
“Yuu?!” she hissed with a hush. “What are you doing here this late? This is the girl’s room!”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“And you thought that it was alright to sneak into my room?!” she said in a hushed voice, angrily.
“Well, yeah.” Yuu shrugged nonchalantly. “What’s the big idea? I come into your room all the time, and you said you’re fine with it.”
“When did I ever say that?” She sat up and cocked her head.
Yuu quickly covered up his mistake. “Ah, sorry. I got you mixed up with someone else.”
“Must’ve, since I never heard those words coming out of my mouth before.” She hmphed. A light touch made her realize that her friend was sleeping beside her, and she gestured Yuu outside the room and followed him out.
“Are you not sleepy?” He asked her. She gave him a whack on the head which left him in shock.
“Do you think I can be sleepy when a creep enters my room in the middle of the night?” She growled menacingly.
He frowned. “It’s not as if I did something perturbing or inappropriate.”
“You can’t just walk into a person’s room–”
“I teleported, actually.” He corrected her which made her scoff.
“Whatever, just next time don’t do it ever again.”
“Well, it's not as if you could sleep either.” He pointed out.
“I-I can sleep.” She stammered awkwardly. She paused at her room’s front door, conscious of the fact that she would just stare at the ceiling all night if she went back in there.
“Go ahead.” Yuu jeered. “Don’t you want to sleep?”
“...I’m thirsty.” She lied, and headed downstairs with Yuu behind her. She grabbed a glass and filled it with some water from the pitcher and gulped it down. “I’m going back to sleep, and nothing you say will change my mind.”
“Wanna talk?” He suggested.
“Okay,” she replied immediately.
“Thought that you were going to sleep, huh?” He sneered at her, who tapped her cup, absent minded. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”
He snapped his fingers and they both vanished into thin air.