The Pre-Game

As the four women entered the barely illuminated room they were greeted by Kichiro Kida the man responsible for this whole reunion event and the one who had personaly invited the four of them.

"Welcome everyone i am happy you could all make it !"

Aiko and Yukimi were about to return his greeting when Tae interupted them both

"Like you had nothing to do with that ! You are literarly paying Aiko and Yukimi to be here and for what to participate in a game for your company don't think i don't know what's going here."

Her outburst took Kichiro by surprise, there was no way she knew... was there ?

"I-i am not sure i understand what you mean ?"

"It's not all that rare you invite us here and have us participate in some humiliating game the broadcast the fotage or upload it to the internet, all because we shut down your stupid club during highschool."

"Tae ! How can you say that Kida-kun was one of our classmates he whould never do something so terrible !"

It was miss Chizu that came to Kitchiro's deffence and he couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt over her faith in him, Tae might had been mostly off about why he had called them here but she was right about him being bitter over the sircumstances surounding the disbanding of his club

"Thank you miss Chizu but i understand miss Kawanbe's conserns if i was in her place i would be suspicious too after all it's no secret i was mad about my club closing down however the truth of the matter is that i would't be who i am today so i am actually grateful to you for closing us back then."

"Right, you are so grateful that you are willing to blow several tens of thousents of yen to have us play some game, there's no way !"

In responce Kichiro gave her a look like she just claimed the sky was purple with black stripes.

"Umm this is just a guess but cold it be that you are not familiar with our company miss Kawanabe ?"

Tae was taken a bit back from his responce.

"It's just a game company, right ?"

"Heh now i see why you were so suspicious but Game Master's Ark inc employs the most advanced of technologies into our games (well acording to Clarke's third law anyway) every single one of our prodacts are premium or collector's items not to mention some can even sell for more than ten digit figures.

"There's no way anyone would pay that much of a game..."

An apologetic look from her sister was all it took to convince the sportswoman of the validty of the claim, the shock this truth brough to her was enough to shut her up and send her mind spining and she took a sit as she contemplated her life choices up until this momemnt.

"Umm so is this a video game."

Asked Aiko in an atempt to dispel the akwardness in the air.

"It's a board game actualy but it also has agmented reality elements so i guess it's a bit like a video game too."

"Oh that sounds intresting !" Aiko was getting fired up it wasn't like she was too big into games however she could aprecite the novelty of such a game it would also make for an exelent conversation topic with some of her dates.

"Umm sorry what does he mean by "agmented reality""

Asked Yukimi and Aiko rushed to fill her in

"it's when you use a computer or a phone to add stuff on a real object, do you remember that camera app that would add fairy features to the picture from some years back that was augmented reality."

"Oh !"

Yukimi exlaimed with childlike wonder for his part Kichiro saw no reason to correct their misconception about what he had ment and insted sought to move things along.

"So please sit down and alow me to explain the rules."

Kichiro waited for everyone to take a sit then presented them the game

"This is the game board"

Everyone starts at the white square of the outer ring then each player takes a turn in a counter clockwise order rolling the die and moving clocwise along the board for the amount they rolled and draw a colored card corresponding to the color of the square they landed, then the player gets to decide if they will accept the card effect or drop out of the game.

"What what are these cards about that would cause anyone to immediatly drop out of the game ?

Asked Aiko.

"Perhaps it's something like truth or dare ?"

Yukimi offered

"Hehe yeah something like that only the game takes care of everything."

In responce to the three younger women quizal looks he started to explai further

"To give an example you draw a card that will give you clown make up if you chose to continue the game will apply the make up and will remain until someone wins the game obviously more and more such effects will acumulate as the game progresses so you can quit if you think you had enough"

"This sounds fun !"

An Exited Yukimi started to say before getting interupted by Tae.

"Wait that sounds awfully lot like those humiliating tv shows i was talking about ! I knew you were up to something !"

In responce Aiko let out a groan and rolled her eyes.

"Relax sis it's only AR it's not like you'd actually wear the make up or whatever.

Again Kichiro saw no reason to correct Aiko especially since her explaination had shut her sister up.

"Moving on, the game ends if a player lands on a white or a black squre which are the final square of each loop in the board or alternatively if only a single player remains in the game."

As he was explaining the rules he saw Shioko who seemed to pay little to no attention to what he was saying

"Miyahara sensei you've been quiet all this time, if you have problem following my explaination i'd be happy to anwer any questions you might have..."

The slightly older woman offered a polite smile

"I am sorry everything just seems too complicated to me but i am sure i'll get the hang of things once we actually start to play the game,"

"If you say so...Finaly we have the white and back cards each player starts with one of each at the start of the game and you draw an aditional one each time you complete a loop, more specificaly you get a black card for completing loops one, three and five while you get a white fo loops two, four and six. White cards are divided to number cards and rerolls, number card can be used at the start of your turn instead of rolling the die or before an other player's movement as an alternative to thei roll, reroll card alow you to reroll a die until it comes up as a different results multiple rerolls can be used to the same die. As for the black car-"

The sound of his phone interupted his explaination

"Oops seems like i am needed elsewhere.

"Wait you are not going to join us ?"

Asked Yukimi sounding disapointed.

"I'd love to but unfortunately i have to oversee the whole event and make sure it's a succses or i might be loosing my job, anyway that's about eveything you need to play as for the back cards they have text that does a good job explaining it's effects so i don't think you'll have a problem fuguring things on your own still i'll be leaving you the manual in case i forgot to mention something or you run into any problems, in any case i am looking forward on you impresions of our game.

With those words he left leaving the four women alone. There was a long moment of silence before Aiko raised her voice.

"Sooo who wants to go first ?"

She asked as she reached for the white and black card decks.

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