Ken vs Ash

Chapter 3

Ken

For the first time at Game Night, my palms were getting sweaty. Made me think of how it felt before an actual Game Night, pacing around the locker room. Mind running in circles, heart pumping. Part of me was still thinking this was some kind of hidden camera thing, but not so much now. It was just full-on freaky weirdness, and I was here for it.

“First, check below your navel, you should have something like this,” Ash stood up from her chair, showing off her flat stomach and the three red heart tattoos that definitely weren’t there earlier, pulling her pants down an inch or so to reveal two more on a second row.

“No shit?” I pulled up my shirt and sure enough, I had the exact same mark. “Check it out, April.”

“Lemme see, lemme see,” Haruka put her palms on the table as she leaned over it. “Wow.”

That got a frown from Rayne and an eyebrow furrowing from April. It was hard being the hot guy around a bunch of chicks, they always ended up wanting to start drama.

Frank got up from his seat and ran towards the bathroom, then came back out after like ten seconds with his shirt untucked.

“You got it too, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s unsettling,” he said as he sat back down.

April, Haruka, and Rayne didn’t make any moves to confirm it for themselves. Haruka I could understand not wanting to flash her skirt up. April was shy, the big dork. And Rayne, well, I kind of got the feeling she never really relaxed around guys, which, y’know? Fair. A little silly what with all the hocus pocus in the room, but fair.

“These are your Hearts,” Ash explained. “When you lose all of your Hearts, you’re eliminated from the game. So the last one who still has any heart points left is the winner.”

“Heart Points. So we can call it HP then, right?” Frank had his phone out, and it looked like he was taking notes.

“Sure. It doesn’t really matter what you call them. Next, those cards from before. They’re a part of you now. If you think about them, you should be able to see them clearly in your mind. And if you focus on one card in particular,” Ash held out her index and middle finger, and like some kind of magician, that oversized metal card appeared in her hand. “You can draw it out.”

Summoning cards like magic? Or… summoning cards with magic, magically. Of course I was gonna try that! I did like she said, thought of the card, then bam! It was right there in my hand, with a nice heavy weight to it.

“Fuckin’ sweet.”

On impulse, I tossed it like a frisbee, watched it arc across the room and thud into the drywall next to the window. I thought about it returning back inside me, and it vanished from the wall. I tried summoning it again, and there it was, ready for another throw—

“Ken! What the hell!?” I’d never heard Rayne raise her voice like that and it was scary. “Are you a child!? Don’t throw those things at my walls!” She was up out of her chair and checking the damage. Probably just a tiny little hole but… yeah.

“Sorry, that was totally my bad. Just got a little excited over unlimited throwing stars.”

April gave me a squeeze on the thigh. “It’s okay, but let’s all try to calm down and let Ash finish, maybe?”

“Yeah. Good idea.” I made a mental note to google some tutorials on youtube on how to fix walls. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

“Well, as Ken already showed us, just thinking about making the card vanish will do the trick. But they aren’t just ‘unlimited throwing stars’. We use them for Duels, with a capital D. Each symbol is for a different category of games. They’re all similar to games we’ve heard of before, but the card will create something new each time.”

Ash pulled out her cards and laid them face up on the table, pointing to them one by one. “The fist is for simple games. No equipment required. Think tag, hide and seek, thumb wrestling. The dice are for—”

“Die. The singular of dice is die,” Frank cut in.

“The dice are for gambling games. Poker, blackjack, craps, that kind of thing. The mind is for games where athleticism and luck aren’t important. Chess, Go, whatever. The coin… Well, it’s not entirely up to luck, but most of it is. Flipping a coin. And the collar… let’s just say that’s for games focused on teamwork. Everyone with me so far?”

Rayne had regained her composure, and before answering she looked at each of us. “One question. Are any of these games going to be so rowdy I’m not going to get the deposit on my apartment back?”

Ash smiled. “Don’t worry. Whatever happens in the game, your apartment is going to be fine.”

“I’m holding you to that. And I’m in. And Ken, no more throwing things inside, got it?”

I held up my hands in full surrender, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ma’am either.”

“Yessir!”

That got a few laughs around the table, and a wry smile from Rayne, so I chalked it up as a win.

“This is so cool…! Really! Ash! What the hell? We really need to grab coffee later because I’ve got a million questions for you,” Haruka said, rocking her chair around on two legs.

“Five hearts, five categories. Last one standing… some kind of arcane generative intelligence. This is going to change gaming forever. Well, the idea that magic is real could change society forever, but… yeah, come on, let’s keep going!”

April had been quiet through most of this, and finally spoke up, “It’s safe, right? All of this?”

“Well…” Ash trailed off, all eyes clinging to her now that she hadn’t immediately answered the straightforward yes/no question. “It’s not going to get anyone killed, if that’s what you mean.”

“Ash…” Rayne was using her ‘you’re on thin ice’ voice.

“Relax! It’s magic. Easy come, easy go. Whatever happens, it’ll just be for a while. And once the game is over, everything goes back to normal. Probably.”

“Probably?” Rayne escalated to the ‘the ice is cracking’ tone.

“It’s a prototype! There might be some bugs. But hey, there are measures in place to keep everyone safe, and if things go a little off the rails, I can call in backup. You’d be in more danger taking the bus.”

“If it really is a prototype, I don’t think you can make those kinds of assurances.”

“Oh, come on, Ray.” Haruka put her head right on Rayne’s shoulder, nuzzling at her neck. “It’s a card game, not some kind of weapon! And we’re all gonna be careful. And I feel like if we don’t jump into this right now, we’re totally gonna miss out. So do it for me, please…?”

Rayne had her teeth clenched, leaning away from Haruka as much as she could, but she didn’t last long. “Fine. But if I say we’re stopping, we’re stopping, okay?”

“Yeah, about that. I should have mentioned it. We can’t stop the game. It lasts until only one person has any hearts left, and if you go a week without joining in on a Duel, you’ll lose a Heart—”

“HP,” Frank chimed.

“--automatically.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. But a week sounds awful long, why not make it every hour?” I asked.

“It’ll be easier to show you than explain. Ken, since you seem so eager to jump the gun, why don’t you try challenging me to a Duel? Bring out a card, then say my name while challenging me to a game.”

I brought out the card with a fist symbol on it, “Okay, Ash, I challenge you to a game. Like that?”

The card slipped out from my fingers and flew towards Ash, growing in size, then splitting into five separate pieces.

“Naked games, huh? Well, let’s see…” Ash started looking at the five cards, and the rest of the table got up to have a look too, me included.

On each of the cards there was a different game, a combination of the rules with some simple illustrations in the same style as the symbols.

Most seemed simple enough. Footracing, sumo wrestling, and kabaddi—though how you were supposed to do that with only two players, I wasn’t sure. The 4th was something called competitive yoga, with rules about taking the pose given out by an instructor, but the 5th really stood out.

Generous Lover

At the start of the game, three clones of the players are created. Clones will follow simple commands from the other player. The goal of the game is to make each of the other player’s clones orgasm before your opponent does the same.

“Huh. Wait. What? Hold on. Ash, this ain’t one of them, uh, adult games, is it?” I said when I read that last game’s rules.

“We’re all adults here, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but how do you think April would feel? How about we go with sumo? I’ll keep my arms behind my back to keep it fair.”

“Ooo, yeah, I guess that really would make this hard for you, huh?” Ash smirked at me, tapped five times on the heart-shaped symbol on the card, then touched the Start button on the Generous Lover card. “Good luck!”