===Zakū Raisunei===

"What is it?" Benkei asked, as the falling brick hit the ground below us.

I read the brick, then narrated its text aloud.

Challenge | ★★★★☆
Pull another brick, but without touching it with your body.

"Oh, that's not... Too bad, I guess?" I reasoned. "Can I have a spare brick?"

"Here." Benkei said, taking one of the many bricks he had collected, and giving it to me. "And maybe I should give back the ones you two pulled. Never know when you might need them for something." He said.

"Thanks." Rafferty said as he received his, keeping it in his hand.

"Yeah, but what will we need this for?" Aulia asked. "We already said trying to interfere with the tower from the hallway is a risky move."

"It's j-just good to have in case w-we think of anything." Rafferty said.

I took the brick I pulled plus the brick Benkei gave me, and placed them on both ends of the left brick on the third row. Pushing the bricks into each other, I pulled towards myself with steady hands, the brick coming along. After the brick was out, I released my grip, and it clinked to the table.

There was no writing on the additional brick. I got back into the hallway as a faint thud sounded from below, giving the room a slight shift.

"Round two: Player Two's turn."

"W-Well, this is becoming muscle m-memory." Rafferty said, getting down and pulling a brick. "Of course, this one h-has w-writing!"

From this point forth, each person has only one minute to complete their turn. If a piece has a challenge, the player gets an additional minute to complete their challenge.

Also, from the next round onwards, Players Two and One will switch orders.

"Two rule changes." I said. "First brick of that kind."

"Yeah." Rafferty replied. "So on round three, you go first."

'That kind of screws me over. By the time I go up, the tower will have been altered by another round, which could make a huge difference.'

"So it seems each brick with writing either offers a rule change, or a challenge." Aulia presumed, as another loud thud shook the building.

'I think I've figured this game out...' I thought, as the others entered a discussion about the game. 'The rules clearly state that whoever is on the platform when the tower falls will get eliminated. So if I were to throw an object at the tower and knock it over during someone else's turn, it'll be Game Over for them, and not put me at any risk. They've considered this, but are doubtful whether it'll still punish the person who knocked over the brick. But why would it? It's an utter dark spot on the rules which means it has to be an exploit. But if I throw it while no one is on the platform, no one will die, which in turn might shift the punishment towards me.'

I sighed quietly, as Rafferty climbed back and Aulia took her turn. 'This game would've been so much easier if I knew none of these people, but I obviously can't jeopardize Rafferty and Benkei's life. And in turn, I probably shouldn't put Aulia at risk, since she's their ally. So then that leaves old man Hideo... I'm not affiliated with him, but do affiliate with Maindo, the faction he's a part of, that I'm not. Maybe he's the best choice to sacrifice...'

"Are you kidding me?" She shouted. In her hand was a brick from the middle of the sixteenth row with a challenge, and soon, another crash exploded from the ground below. Benkei stumbled to the floor, as Rafferty caught Hideo, who was knocked over.

Aulia fell on her rear, and the tower wobbled. She yelped, scooching away, as it stabilized. The shifted rows only became more misaligned.

"S-So wh-what's your challenge?"

She read it aloud and flashed us the brick.

Challenge | ★☆☆☆☆

"What?" Benkei asked. "So... That'll completely disrupt our playing field?"

"And I wonder what it exactly means by the table remaining stationary? Is it some sort of levitation system?" Hideo asked.

Rafferty turned towards him. "Good i-idea, old man. It'd be unfair for one brick to just randomly offer a d-death sentence, so surely y-you'll be fine, Aulia."

"And it'll be an easy draw too," Benkei assured her, walking closer to the edge, "since it's at the very top. The impact will be worse, but pulling it won't be."

She breathed out. "Okay. Here I go." Aulia walked to the right brick on the floor, then grabbed the central brick by its edges. "Wait a second... If this is the very top brick, and the Jenga tower represents the real tower, what would happen if I lifted this brick up?"

I shrugged. "Probably nothing. That's for the same reason we're carrying all our bricks around, but below us, the scaffolding isn't flying around. It's only an approximate simulation."

"Y-Yeah, but I still w-wouldn't test it."

"Yeah, I won't. Just a thought..." Aulia slid the brick out. The real brick followed, and the table remained suspended in the air.

"Interesting..." Rafferty breathed.

Aulia headed back to the hallway, raising her foot onto the ledge. However, before she could get back into the hall, the brick made impact with the floor,

The crash violently shook the building, its noise thundering, dropping us to our feet. Aulia stumbled back over, nearly crashing into the table. She gas[ed, balancing herself, running towards the ledge.

However, the top rows leaned from the misalignment, and the vicious impact caused the right brick of the top row to fall off. I stepped behind the wall.

Immediately, it translated into the real tower; the piece of the floor Aulia was on flipped like a seesaw, before launching downwards. She shrieked as the tumbling brick threw her into the ledge, crushing its weight against her in the process, splintering fragments of wood as it shattered against the ledge.

Benkei ducked and turned himself away from the blast of shredded wood, as Rafferty pulled Hideo behind the wall opposite of me, covering them with his jacket.

"Aulia!" Benkei shouted, racing to the ledge and grabbing her wrist, right as her grip became undone. She gasped, dangling in the air, as Benkei pulled her up and laid her on the floor. Her breathing was rapid as her entire body shook.

"Oh my god. Oh my god." She panted.

"Are you okay?" He shouted, as Rafferty and Hideo rushed back into the hall.

She swallowed. "I'm okay. That just– I–"

"Round two: Player Four's turn."

"She just a-almost died." Rafferty said, meeting Benkei's eyes. "It's u-understndable that sh-she's hyperventilating, and q-quite flustered."

"Benkei." I said. "It's your turn. Remember, you only have a minute to do each turn now."

He got up, looking at the platform–or rather, what remained of it: just the left third. Benkei took a deep breath, wrapping his hands around his neck. "Okay. Okay. Okay..."

By now, the tower was warped in nearly every row, leaning as it got higher, and missing countless bricks. Even without the round limit, it was apparent the game would be ending soon.

'Maybe I don't need to pull my strategy.' I thought. 'It looks like Benkei or Hideo won't be making it.'

Benkei paced around the left portion of the floor, taking hold of one of the bricks on the third row. "I know that there's a high chance of a challenge piece... but I'd rather that than deal with the risk of a heavy thud knocking the tower over!"

With steady hands, he tugged on the brick, edging it outwards gradually. With ten seconds left, it came out, and he breathed a sigh of relief, before tensing at the sight of yet another challenge.

"Damn!" He cursed. "Why do we keep getting challenge pieces? Three stars–add three bricks to the tower."

Challenge | ★★★★☆
Add three bricks to the Jenga tower.

"You s-still have a lot of bricks f-from earlier, right?" Rafferty asked.

Benkei nodded, pulling out two additional bricks, setting them onto the table. "This sounds easy in theory, but... The weight is so sensitive at this point, any added pressure could topple it."

"Maybe just... Try to add it all fast." Aulia said from the floor, as she recovered.

Benkei took one of the bricks, putting it on the opposite end of the top row, then added one to the middle, completing the top row once more.

Then, the tower began shifting to the right. Benkei gasped, swooping in with the final brick and placing it on the top row to the left, balancing the weight. The tower wobbled backwards, then in place, before finally stabilizing.

Benkei let out a breath, before climbing off the platform.

"Round two: Player Five's turn."

Hideo got onto the platform, and I gripped the brick inside my pocket.

'Come on... Fall...'

However, he chose fast, selecting a left brick on the fourth row and pulling out swiftly. I grit my teeth, my fingers tracing over the brick. 'Come on! Throw the brick! Just end the game!'

But my fingers were paralyzed. Before I could fight the resistance to throw the brick, Hideo had already gotten off the platform. The sound of the brick falling was quiet, and the shaking was minimal.

"I got pretty lucky." He said. "Low brick, and it had no challenge."

"Round three: Player One's turn."

Rafferty sighed, getting onto the platform. "This is r-really starting to get tough now, isn't i-it?"

I curled my fingers into fists, cursing mentally. 'I couldn't throw the brick to knock the tower over when Hideo was up. So now I have to do it to Rafferty?'

I ran my fingers through my hair as Rafferty surveyed the tower. 'This wouldn't be so hard if he hasn't treated me so well. Even then, I shouldn't have a problem prioritizing my life over his... So what's the issue?'

As Rafferty selected a brick and began pushing it through to the other side, I sighed. 'I'll just take my turn; I'll be fine. At this rate, the tower is bound to fall during Aulia, Benkei, or Hideo's next turn.'

The brick fell through; it was the middle brick of the fifth row. Rafferty tensed as he anticipated the impact, as did us, but the crash wasn't too bad; another ceiling tile came off, but the tower wasn't affected.

Rafferty grabbed the brick and turned it over; his face dropped.

"What?" Aulia asked.

"A f-five star challenge." He groaned, reading it aloud and showing us the brick.

Challenge | ★★★★★
For this challenge, the player who drew this has three minutes regardless of any time alterations. The player is also allowed to get off the platform. From there, they must orally rank the other players in order of highest to lowest, and players will receive a punishment based on their ranking.

So, the first player that is said first will be ranked highest, and vice versa.

"What the hell?" Benkei asked. "What's the punishment?"

"Any ideas?" Aulia asked.

"I don't know, Aulia. Wh-What do you guys th-think?"

"Player Three ranked first."

"Damn!" He cursed. "Didn't mean that. And I d-don't even know your name." He pointed to Hideo.

"Oh, my name is H—"

"So what do we do?" Benkei shouted.

"S-Screw it." Rafferty stammered. "Everyone empty y-your pockets of the bricks, I'm going to risk throwing th-them at the tower!"

"Are you sure?" Aulia asked. "What if it punishes you for it?"

"Maybe you should just rank us." Hideo said. "You don't know what'll happen."

"It's m-my life." He said. "I'll take this risk."

We emptied our pockets of our bricks into a large pile in the center of the hallway, as the timer hit two minutes.

"H-Here goes nothing!" Rafferty shouted, taking a brick and throwing it at the tower. But before it could make contact, a laser struck the brick down.

Benkei gasped, backing away. 'Thank goodness I didn't throw it.' I thought. 'It wouldn't have worked either way.'

Rafferty tried again, but the same result repeated. Aulia took two bricks, chucking them, but both were struck down, shot into the drop below the platform. Benkei and Rafferty grabbed the remaining bricks, furiously hurling a storm of projectiles, with each getting stopped by the lasers.

"Rafferty, your jacket!" I said. "Maybe we can fan it!"

He turned towards me, nodding and slipping it off. "Good i-idea!" He grabbed the fabric by its ends and flapped it, the gust of wind skewing the tower's balance.

"It's working!" Aulia shouted.

But right as the weight was about to tip over, a flurry of red–it must've been about a dozen lasers–tore through Rafferty's jacket. One narrowly grazed his hand, and he yelped. Dropping the jacket. It fell through the hole, a gust of wind carrying it away.

"One minute left!" Benkei announced.

"I think you should just rank us!" Hideo shouted. "This is going nowhere!"

"What can we do that can't be inhibited by the lasers?" Benkei asked.

"We need a way to knock it over through means other than projectiles." I said. "If we..." I put my head down, thinking. "If we all tie our shoes together by the shoelace into a giant chain, then swing it, the lasers can't stop that!"

"My shoes are slip-ons!" Aulia said.

"Same with mine." Hideo said.

"S-So then w-we do the three of us!" Rafferty said, getting on his rear, undoing his shoelaces. Me and Benkei followed after him, but the clock was on our tails.

"Thirty seconds left!" Aulia said.

I had just slipped both my shoes off, tying their inner laces together, as Rafferty scurried to where I sat, tying his shoe's lace to mine, and Benkei did so as well.

Rafferty took the whip, swinging it back for momentum, then hurled it forward; the length was short. He repeated his swing against the edge, but missed by a hair.

"Here." Benkei said, taking his hand, and leaning him over the edge. "This should do it!"

Rafferty swung again, but this time, the laser pieced through the laces, severing the whip. Me and Rafferty's shoes fell straight through the hole.

"Crap, what now?" Benkei shouted.

"Just rank us!" Hideo screamed.

The timer hit ten seconds, and Rafferty looked back at us, as Benkei ran back, attempting to throw one of the ceiling tiles in a last-ditch effort; it was in vain.

"It's still m-my turn. I c-can still g-go on the platform." He said, dropping down.

"Rafferty, what are you doing?" I asked, me and Aulia running to the edge as Benkei tossed the other ceiling tile.

"Ending this game!" He bellowed, swinging his feet and kicking the tower over.

Aulia gasped, as his foot made contact with the tower. I extended my hand, grabbing a hold of his arm as the final portion of the floor gave out. My feet slipped, and I screamed, as Aulia grabbed onto us.

The air around us thundered as thousands of tons of rubble collided with the ground, sending forth a cloud of dust and shrapnel. My world shook like the insides of a snow globe as the building violently jerked, the ceiling tiles falling like a storm.

"AH! My arm!" Aulia's grip loosened, and slipped. Again, we fell through the air, and for a second, I closed my eyes, before our descent stopped again.

It was Benkei; he grabbed onto Aulia's arm as we fell. Finally, the dust settled, as ghost sounds of the collapse still shook my ears, interrupted only by his panting. I looked up, where there was Aulia, and down, where there was Rafferty, a lethal drop, and the ground, scattered with the blocks of crushed scaffolding. We dangled in the air, the dusk breeze fluttering around our bodies.

"The game has ended. To all surviving players, it is Game Clear." The lift door opened with a ding.

"Help me pull them up." Benkei said to Hideo. The man rushed in, their combined strengths pulling us up. Aulia made contact on the ground with her feet, and yanked my weight up with Benkei's pull. Finally, I reached the hallway, and with one final tug, we pulled Rafferty up.

"Benkei, y-you saved us." Rafferty said. "Thank you."

"Yeah, thank you." I said.

"Thank you." Aulia said.

"I'm just glad I was there in time." He chuckled, pocketing one hand and scratching his neck with the other.

"And Z-Zakū, you w-were the one that risked it first and grabbed o-onto me." He said, facing me. "I owe my l-life to you too. Thank you."

"No problem." I said.

"We beat this game," Aulia said, "but I don't quite understand how this was Clubs and not Hearts."

"I think I know." I responded. "The way that the rules are, it makes you think the only way to win is to try to mess with the other players, to try to mess up their turn so they die. Like Hearts. But in the end, it was trust and cooperation that got us through, such as when Rafferty put his life on the line, and we all pulled each other up. But since this game still had so many aspects of intelligence and strength, it was Clubs, and not Hearts."

Rafferty nodded. "I agree with that a-analysis. B-But being at this height is making me e-exhausted, let's go down."

No one resisted; we got onto the elevator, which carried us down. On the ground, dirt and dust was strewn all over the white concrete, with splintered wood scattered across the construction site.

We walked through the exit gate, weaving through the rubble, as Rafferty got his Two of Clubs playing card. "W-Well, I guess this is g-goodbye."

Me and Hideo passed a knowing glance; he would meet them again tonight, for tonight was when Erina and Kazetani were to announce their alliance. He had been meeting with her and the Beach executives for the past week, organizing their union.

"Zakū, have you ever changed your mind about joining the Beach?" Benkei asked.

I shook my head. "I don't like having my loyalty tethered. Sorry, but no."

"That's f-fine." Rafferty said. Then, he turned to Hideo. "H-Hey, I don't think w-we've ever caught your name."

He smiled. "My name is Hideo."

"W-Wait." His eyes widened. "Hideo..."

Benkei tilted his head in confusion, as Hideo reciprocated the flash of recognition. "Wait... Rafferty?"

"I didn't r-recognize you at a-all!"

"Me neither!"

"How do you guys know each other?" Aulia asked.

"I met h-him in m-my very first game: the Nine of H-Hearts." Rafferty explained. "B-Benkei, you remember me t-talking about it in the Three of Hearts, right?"

He nodded.

"Yes. A-Anyways, this w-was the man I talked about then. Th-The one w-who I w-was ahead of, but saved last second after finding an e-exploit in the game. I was concerned as to wh-why I never saw you again a-after that g-game. I thought you didn't make it."

"I may be old, but considering the fact that I've made it this far, I would also consider myself quite resilient."

"Do you want to join us? We're part of a group called the Beach." Benkei offered.

Hideo shook his head. "I'm flattered by the offer, but... I have my own group of allies I must return to. Though, each day, it seems the Borderlands becomes a smaller place; I'm certain we'll meet again soon."

Rafferty smiled. "I'm sure w-we w-will."

"I'll be going now." Hideo said. "Farewell, and thank you for this interesting game."

"Same here," I said, walking in the opposite direction of him, "goodbye."

The three bid their goodbyes to each of us, as I stuffed the Two of Clubs card into my pocket.

After finding Maeda to be a suitable candidate for the