Exploding Kittens

Note: Hi guys!, I would like to do a little disclosure, first of all thank you Ggnt for this splendid Rulebook branch idea!, second I am not the best writer, English is not my main language and I am using a bit of help from AI to write the details of the ideas I want to develop. I hope you guys enjoy this path.

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The following afternoon, after classes had ended, the six friends gathered once again in the spacious common room of Suite 213. The room felt calmer than it had the day before, but only just. The Rulebook rested untouched on the coffee table between them, its presence enough to keep everyone aware of how much power it held. Ever since the previous day's events, everyone had been unusually cautious. Every new rule had consequences, and everyone knew it.

Mira was the first to speak, settling onto the couch with a serious expression. “We agreed the next rule has to be earned,” she reminded the others.

Ken gave a small nod from where he stood nearby, clearly in agreement.

Donna dropped into an armchair with her usual grin and looked around the room as if expecting someone to reveal a surprise. “So...what’s today’s game?” she asked.

Shannon, who had been quietly taking in the room, leaned forward with interest. “Please tell me it’s something simple.”

Alyssa answered by reaching into her backpack and pulling out a colorful box. “Exploding Kittens.”

Sierra tilted her head, studying the box with interest. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never actually played.”

Alyssa smiled and began explaining the rules in simple terms. Everyone would draw cards from a shared deck, and most of those cards would help them in some way. Some would let them skip turns, steal cards, peek at the deck, or force another player to take extra turns. The danger came from the Exploding Kitten cards hidden in the deck. If someone drew one and did not have a Defuse card, they were immediately eliminated. The last player remaining would win.

Donna leaned back in her chair and gave a thoughtful nod. “So...it’s basically survival through luck and a little sabotage.”

“Pretty much,” Alyssa said with a laugh.

Shannon glanced at the box again. “That sounds a lot less simple than you made it sound.”

“It is simple,” Alyssa replied. “It just isn’t kind.”

Within minutes, the cards had been shuffled, everyone had received a Defuse card, and the game began. At first, the rounds were surprisingly uneventful. Players stole cards from one another, skipped turns when they could, and laughed whenever someone narrowly avoided disaster. Ken quietly built a respectable hand, keeping track of the deck with careful attention, while Mira watched the discard pile and counted the remaining cards with almost mathematical precision.

Shannon played more cautiously than Donna, but she was still clearly learning as she went. She studied each card before using it and tried to keep track of what everyone else was doing. “I feel like I’m missing some obvious strategy,” she admitted after one turn.

“You are,” Sierra said immediately.

Shannon gave her a flat look. “That was not helpful.”

Donna, on the other hand, relied almost entirely on luck. She played whatever cards she happened to draw, often without fully understanding the consequences. After one particularly random move, she admitted with a helpless shrug, “I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

“That was obvious,” Sierra teased, earning a groan from Donna and a few laughs from the others.

Not long after that, Donna drew her next card and flipped it over. An Exploding Kitten stared back at her. For a moment, she simply blinked at it in disbelief. Then she checked her hand, hoping she had overlooked something. Her expression fell when she realized she had no Defuse card left.

“Well,” she said flatly.

Ken pointed at the card with a dramatic flourish. “You are officially the first casualty.”

Donna sighed as everyone laughed around her. “I lasted, like...three minutes.”

“You lasted longer than I expected,” Sierra said with a grin.

Donna responded by throwing a cushion at her, which only made the others laugh harder. With Donna eliminated, the remaining five continued the game.

Only a few rounds later, Mira found herself growing confident. She had been keeping track of the deck carefully and seemed convinced she had a good sense of what was coming next. “The next card can’t possibly be an Exploding—” she began, but her voice stopped short as she turned over the card in her hand.

Another Exploding Kitten.

The room went silent for a beat. Mira slowly looked through her hand, searching for a Defuse card that was no longer there. Her shoulders sank when she realized the truth.

“No Defuse.”

Ken couldn’t help smiling. “The statistics finally caught up to you.”

Mira folded her arms with mock annoyance. “I dislike statistics.”

“You are statistics,” Sierra replied, which made Mira roll her eyes before she joined Donna on the sidelines.

That left four players, and the tension in the room began to rise. Shannon had started taking bigger care with her turns, trying to stay patient and avoid unnecessary risks. She had even managed to keep a decent hand together, which made her elimination all the more frustrating when it came.

She drew a card, glanced at it, and then froze.

Exploding Kitten.

Shannon stared at it for a second as if hoping it might change.

“...You have got to be kidding me.”

A quick check of her hand confirmed what she already feared. “No Defuse.”

Alyssa winced sympathetically. “That’s rough.”

Shannon let out a long breath and leaned back in her chair. “I hate this game.”

Ken gave a small, helpless shrug. “The deck is merciless.”

Shannon stood and joined Donna and Mira on the sidelines, muttering something about never trusting cats again.

Three players remained, and the atmosphere in the room changed almost immediately. Sierra had started taking bigger risks, hoping to end the game quickly before the deck turned against her. Unfortunately, confidence proved expensive. When her turn came, she drew a card and immediately froze.

Exploding Kitten.

“...Seriously?” she muttered, staring at it in disbelief.

A quick glance at her hand confirmed what she already feared. “I used my Defuse ages ago.”

Alyssa gave her a sympathetic look. “Guess that’s it.”

Sierra let herself fall dramatically backward across the couch. “I demand a rematch.”

“Denied,” Ken answered at once, which only made Sierra groan louder.

That left only Ken and Alyssa, and the atmosphere changed almost immediately. Neither of them spoke much anymore. Every card drawn could end the game, and both players knew it. The earlier laughter faded into focused silence as the deck grew smaller and the stakes became clearer.

Ken managed to force Alyssa into taking two turns in a row, hoping to pressure her into a mistake. Alyssa responded by stealing one of his remaining action cards, which made Ken stare at her in surprise. “You’ve become scary,” he admitted.

“You taught me yesterday,” Alyssa replied.

The deck was getting dangerously small by then. Ken glanced at the discard pile and counted under his breath before speaking aloud. “There should only be one Exploding Kitten left.”

Alyssa smiled faintly. “So whoever draws next probably loses.”

“Probably.”

Ken looked over the cards in his hand one last time, weighing every option. Skip? No. Shuffle? Too risky. Attack? Pointless. None of them would guarantee safety, and the deck was nearly empty. At last, he let out a slow breath and gave a resigned shrug.

“Well...here goes.”

He reached forward and slowly drew the top card. Everyone leaned in at once, watching him turn it over. The moment the card was revealed, the table erupted.

Exploding Kitten.

Ken looked down at his empty hand and then back at the card with a tired smile. “No Defuse.”

Despite losing, he laughed. “I knew it.”

Alyssa let out a relieved breath before raising both hands in victory. “I actually won.”

Donna clapped enthusiastically from the sidelines. “I can’t believe it.”

Mira smiled and gave Alyssa a nod of approval. “Congratulations.”

Shannon crossed her arms and shook her head with a grin. “I should have known the quiet one would win.”

Sierra groaned dramatically. “We really let the quiet one win.”

Alyssa glanced toward the Rulebook resting on the coffee table, and the mood in the room shifted again. The game was over, but the real prize was still waiting. Ken leaned back in his chair and accepted the result with a shrug. “A deal’s a deal.”

“The winner gets to create one rule,” Mira added, her tone careful. “And remember the limitation.”

Alyssa nodded. “I know.”

“One rule,” Ken repeated.

She stepped closer to the coffee table and rested a hand on the cover of the Rulebook. “It lasts exactly twenty-four hours.”

The room grew noticeably quieter as everyone watched her. Unlike the previous day’s experiments, this rule would affect all of them, and for the next twenty-four hours there would be no undoing it. The pencil rested beside the book, waiting.

Alyssa picked it up and held it for a moment before speaking softly. “Give me a minute,” she said. “I want to make this one count.”