"My testimony?" Mana muttered. She did feel a bit stumped about these stakes. Maybe she should have felt bad about not having foreseen it sooner. This was, after all, what this entire event was about, why all these ninja of different backgrounds came together. Of course, Jagaimo would not just be in it for the money or to satisfy some sick, sadistic gambling fantasy. The testimony was always what this was all about.
"Yeah. If I win, you will have to tell the council what I tell you to say." Jagaimo nodded. Mana's glare sharpened, she noticed something interesting. It did not appear that the young man was too enthusiastic about what he was saying. Here he was, letting his net out, looking to catch a pretty important fish to him, based on what he was doing, where and how big the stakes were if he got caught doing what he did. He basically put the entire trust that Kirigakure had managed to gather over the years since the bloody Kage Summit on top of a very wobbly card tower. Jagaimo evidently did not want to play this game himself.
"This is… Disgraceful, even for such as yourself." Tokui grumbled out, it was notable that he did not run off to tell on Jagaimo either. He just sat there still and watched.
"If you're trying to offend me, you can do much better than this." Jagaimo finally fired back. This, however, sounded much more defensive. Whereas the Kirigakure street rat barely registered the previous social jabs thrown his way, this one he took very seriously. It hit him right in the ribs.
Something was forcing Jagaimo to play this game. That much was self-evident, of this Mana needed no confirmation, no questions asked. The figure behind the Voice of Kirigakure intrigued her, however. Was it the new Mizukage? Did it really only take the following successor of Mizukage Shirona to already set Kirigakure to a plot to destroy and kill? Back on its Bloody Mist way?
No. Something here did not feel like something the Mizukage would want. The Bloody Mist supporters always treasured strength. That was one thing they respected above all, not just combat potential but also the ability to deceit and trick one's stronger opponent, making the deceitful one stronger in the end. It was a cutthroat way of life but it would not have craved the end of the ninja system as they knew it. The current system was perfect and well-liked by the Bloody Mist supporters. This would not make much sense, too much risk for too confusing of a reward, everything could be lost for something detrimental gained.
"Well… What will you say, Nakotsumi Mana?" Tokui was the one who turned his look at the magician.
"I am under the impression that I cannot refuse this game, is that true? It would take a mad person or a complete idiot to gamble with these odds, the success of my mission objective, the fate of the entire ninja system and the world as we know it placed on the way cards fall into our hands." Mana asked.
"Oh, you can absolutely refuse to play." Jagaimo sighed. Once again the feeling of self-loathing soaked his very essence. It was true that sometimes the tall and slim human-moray hybrid looked pathetic in the way he sneered and grumped his laughter and passionately uttered words like a pig, with a marginally neighing manner, but that the street rat owned. His current words, his behavior, he utterly despised and the wish for an honorable way out was simply leaking out from the young man. "However… You must know that I have already won seven games just like this one. I'm sure you can do the math…"
"Seven?" Mana thought to herself as her eyes rolled up, she slipped into the void of her own thoughts, quickly analyzing the importance of this number, before it all returned to her in a split instant. An entire universe-worth of calculations and weighing transpiring in her mind in a blink of an eye. "I must say, you've planned this remarkably."
"It is rare of you to compliment people you find foul, Konoha's Sorceress. Your shows, judging from what I've heard, are always so cheerful, full of upbeat crap." Jagaimo looked down, letting his greasy hair cover up his ashamed of his own actions face. "I made a gamble, I bet on you being the same way as a ninja and I see that I have hit the bullseye. You can simply refuse this, let me go to another room and play this game with another ninja, but you have figured out what this means, right? I've gambled literally half of these people in this mansion, tricked them into telling exactly what that man… No, what I want them to say tomorrow. You can stop that, if you play the game, or you can refuse and send me my way. That would be the equivalent of you looking the other way but that's not you, is it?"
"Fine, it seems you've cornered me…" Mana submitted. "However, it is only a gamble if there is a risk on both sides. There are conditions I wish to name as well."
"Only fair." Jagaimo nodded. "Name them."
"If I win, you cannot offer this game to anyone else. You will stop at where you are now, you will also free those you have gathered into your debt at the moment. On top of that, you will tell me who put you up to this plan." Mana spoke without hesitation. She had been formulating these conditions ever since Jagaimo's own were named as she knew that the young man likely had something on her to force her to play this game. Maybe he had someone dear to Mana captured and held hostage, maybe he knew more about Mana than he let in on and would have threatened innocent lives, either way, the young woman counted on there being something this whole time.
"That's a lot of baggage. Too much. Let's leave it at just stopping the game at you. There's no need for the other stuff." Jagaimo shook his head. A different smell spread out of the young man, that of blinding fear, the type of panic that forced one to stick their butts to the chair and not move an inch.
It was impossible not to notice that the only conditions that Jagaimo refused were those associated with "that man", whoever put the young man up to this game, whoever's anarchic desires concocted this twisted plot to end the entire ninja system with a handful of games of cards. Mana sighed, this was the part that intrigued her the most. The reason why the magician accepted gambling her own honor, the entire ninja system as well, on a game of cards was that she wanted to free Jagaimo of the weighty vows he had sworn to "that man". The secondary motivation was the sheer intrigue and curiosity of the figure and the greater plot behind. If she was to uncover something like this, perhaps she was not so average after all?
"If I win and you cannot gamble anyone else into this plot, there is no use with not letting go of those captured in your web of lies. The entire plot becomes pointless because you will only have seven Voices against eight, you will lose either way. Why would you be so adamant about maintaining your grip around those ninja? Don't you see that you have captured them in something that will make them hate their own selves about as much as you loathe what you're doing here right now?" Mana made a very precise and sharp cut, she had made Jagaimo ponder for a moment, she really did puncture something under his armor but the fishy skin was thicker than the magician thought it to be.
"No. I stand by my word." Jagaimo shut her down. "If I win – you say what I tell you to say to the Council. If you win, I stop this plot with the seven people I've already entangled in it. That is all. If you keep on haggling here, all you will win is me leaving to bring these terms to someone else."
"Wait, you have not yet approached me with this. Did you ever plan on doing that?" Tokui glared at the Voice of Kirigakure, the disdain in his eyes had loosened ever so slightly.
"Yes, at some point…" Jagaimo nodded. "Konoha's Sorceress was a mighty card player, she was also very tricky to convince into something like this, that is why I approached her in the middle, where I could play into her hero complex and pressure her into playing. You would have been next to last, Kumogakure, especially those of more conservative views, tend not to go into much talk with foreigners, that is why I counted on you outright not opening the door of your room for me when I came to you with this. That would have been fine, by then I would have convinced everyone else and your voice would hardly have been relevant."
"You cocky bastard!" Tokui growled, he pressed his fists so tightly that they shook, the very air around them seemed to bend around the intensity of the accelerated chakra flow and sheer power being driven through his body system. "If I played this game with you, would you accept Mana's terms? As they were originally worded? You releasing those you've caught in your web if you lose and giving the man that tied you up to this to us as well?"
"Very well…" Tokui nodded. "I do not know much information about this man, I'll tell you up front, but I will tell you everything I do know. If you manage to win, that is. Now… It is time we play some cards, don't you think?"
"Hmph… The fate of the entire ninja system put behind a game of cards named after male genitalia… Despicable!" Tokui closed his eyes in shame as he moved his chair up closer to the table where Jagaimo was shuffling to deal the cards.
"Although…" Jagaimo pressed and twisted his lips as if he had just eaten a sour plum. "I am technically going to fulfill three conditions for you if I lose and you guys are only going to fulfill one, granted, it will be two of you but… You're still short…"
"What are you suggesting?" Tokui leaned in on the taller yet significantly punier and slimmer Voice.
"Can't we just… I dunno, spice the game up a little?" Jagaimo shrugged, trying to make an innocent face. "One trick, each one of us can impose one condition, that is all I ask. I shall be the one to impose mine last."
"Hmph, it's not like I need one but… Fine. Instead of a trick, I want a change of rules as far as they apply to me." Tokui suggested. "Whenever I scoop, I only have to scoop three cards on the top, I can scoop anything more than that but no less than three."
"That's… Massive…" Jagaimo shifted and wrangled like an eel under sharp sea stone.
"I like it." Mana smiled. "Represents Tokui-san's iron body quite nicely, he cannot sustain too much damage… Weiner was supposed to emulate combat, be a more peaceful and legal substitute, right?"
"Tsk… Fine. What is your condition, Konoha's Sorceress?" Jagaimo smacked his face with his palm and shook his head, evidently, the Voice of Kirigakure struggled to believe the fact that he agreed with these conditions.
"I'll keep mine in reserve. It will not affect the rules at all, I trust that I am allowed this luxury?" Mana wondered. Tokui glared at the magician as if about to object, as someone worried and working his hardest to defend the ninja system, the Kumogakure ninja wanted to know everything on the table and this mystery made it difficult for him to play the game for the purpose beneficial to both him and Mana. Regardless, whether it was because of better, calmer judgment that came with the short pause or out of flat out respect for the girl that beat an Imarizu member all by herself, Tokui submitted with a shrug.
"No way! You have to tell me what it is! At the very least, you have to give me a guarantee or something, like that the trick you are keeping in secret will only affect no more than one card…" Jagaimo objected quite vocally.
"One card? Yeah… I can work with that." Mana smiled, feeling content with the deal she worked out.
"Heh, fine!" Jagaimo grinned like a sly devil who had just forced a duo into a Faustian bargain. He weaved a hand seal before becoming enveloped in a thin membrane of water that soon split into two more liquid shapes. Before long, the watery humanoids became mirror copies of Jagaimo. "Water Clone Jutsu!" the young man chanted out after the jutsu's completion.
"Tsk… To think you were such a haggling spinster with our conditions and here you are doing something like this…" Tokui grumbled. He disliked Jagaimo's play and wanted to resist it quite actively but he noticed Mana's contained and quite lively chuckle.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mana addressed the Kirigakure street rat with a friendly smile.
"What do you mean? If any of these clones win – I win, that's my condition!" Jagaimo bragged, with each one of the two water clones pointing their own thumbs at themselves, just like the original did.
"Very well…" Mana closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Shuffle the cards in that case…"
"W-Wait… Are you sure you want him shuffling again? In a game of these stakes?" Tokui leaned in on Mana's side.
"If any one of us shuffles – it will be a game of chance, total randomness. I refuse to entrust my fate into the hands of chance. I would much rather work with a deck stacked against me than a random bunch of cards…" Mana looked cheerful, Jagaimo glared at Mana with a speck of intimidation. To him, without a doubt, it seemed as if this game was as good as done, everything he wanted from this game he got, even more, he shuffled the deck, he got his clone trick as well as an extra condition after he wins. The loss conditions may as well have not even been there for they will never happen, not with all he had going for it…
Then why was the magician smiling? This was what Jagaimo was thinking and it was all over his intimidated and pale face. Whereas "paleskin" was usually a racist slang used by conservative Land of Lightning denizens, if used this time, Mana may have considered it an accurate description.
"Oh… I understand now!" Tokui hammered his palm with his fist in a revelation that undoubtedly seemed genius to him. "By creating clones as his condition, this scoundrel has sealed his fate!"
"Huh? How so?" One of Jagaimo's clones raised an eyebrow. Sensing the clones from the real deal while sitting at the opposite ends of the same table was elementary to the magician as the duplicated barely even had a tenth of the original's chakra even if that tenth got violently ripped out from the original's strength. Telling such a thing felt so simply and primitive that Mana had almost forgotten how it felt not having the ability to tell between the clones and the real deal in the middle of a battle.
"Because this is not a game you necessarily win, it is a game one loses!" Tokui crossed his arms over his chest while making a proud in his own intelligence face. "You cannot win per se, you can only lose by being the last person with cards in your hands. That means that by duplicating you didn't help your chances but reduce them, you've increased the probability that you will lose, you imbecile!"
"Huh? That never was the deal. Only the one who gets rid of their hand first gets their condition fulfilled. If either I or any of my images empty their hand – we win." Jagaimo almost mocked the Kumogakure ninja's declaration.
"That's bullshit!" Tokui yelled out, thrusting his clutched fist out and almost shoving it down the face of the clone he was arguing against.
"Calm down," Mana advised the Voice of Kumogakure. "I always counted on Jagaimo-san not to have just tripled his chances of losing. It's okay."
"You mean… You still…"
"Yeah, deal already." Mana nodded before giving the original Jagaimo that was shuffling in between every card he dealt, no doubt working his own unique brand of magic on the deck he was working with as he did so, a stern look.
"If you're in such a hurry to stuff your head into the guillotine…" the Kirigakure street rat smirked, completing the shuffling and the dealing card. To most, this was where the game would have been decided. If Mana played something trivial like poker, perhaps she would have decided that winning and losing was decided merely by the cold fact of how the cards went, how the hands were dealt. With Weiner however… This was just the first half of the total package.
The magician tipped the five cards she was dealt, the same number as everyone else was. All she needed was a peek at the measly symbols that truthfully had little to no meaning but that which the players imbued them with. A nine of clubs, a queen of each hearts and spades, an ace of spades and the important card. The one that Mana's magic trick involved.
Jagaimo cheated slightly when he put in place the rule that defined Mana's as of yet unrevealed ability to tip the game's scales. In a game of cards, it was impossible to affect just one card with any switcheroo trick. A switcheroo had to involve at the very least two cards either way, the one being changed and the one it was changed with, then again, if one of the cards being affected by Mana's chosen condition was that of her own, who was exactly going to complain about Mana's own card being upped or downed in scale? Certainly not the magician herself.
"Alright!" Jagaimo pumped his fist while his two clone lackeys joined in on the hype. "Let the game of Weiner for the fate of the shinobi system begin!"
