The rules on the wall were quite simple and easy to follow. Simply put, follow the orders and win. That's all there was to it. Rather than converse with the others, Mari chose to watch. With eyes opened wider than they should have been, she watched everyone else. It was wholly unenjoyable, but what else was there to do? The girlboy introduced himself. Mari didn't care about his name or who he was. He spoke about staying calm—something Mari already was—and simply playing along for now. He also tasted the blood on the wall. An entirely unneeded act, considering how there was zero doubt on if it was blood. Each of them had already been carved and bashed on the skull. Then the cards came down. The game ended with death every which way, so stated the first card. The second carried an order with it: cut someone. Quickly, the buff blonde manslashed the lanky boy. He was rather polite about it, for some reason. He chose to slash a cut only slightly deeper. Besides those things, nothing of importance happened. Only idle chitchat and a plea. The things that Mari didn't care about, nor would she remember for more than a fleeting second. The two Asian women mostly stood and watched. Though, their reactions were completely different. One seemed constantly lost in thought, only to have sweat bead down their brow when they realized what was going on. The other was practically dead, choosing not to show anything on her face. Weird. But so was the girl—herself—looking at everyone else with an unnatural amount of intent. Then, a new order came alongside a pair of pliers. Tooth and nail. Proverbial, was it? Whoever was the king must have thought [i]real[/i] long and hard on that order. That was her bitterness speaking. Had she been a strapping young firebrand in his peak, she could have easily caved Five's jaw in and dropped the rusty nail in her pocket in. In fact, it would have been the most logical route to follow. The amount of suffering and loss would be minimized by all parties. Mari wouldn't feel pain and Five would had been too gobsmacked to suffer needlessly. Unfortunately, Mari wasn't a buff freak. Her strength was more akin to Glass Joe than Mike Tyson. Possessing an almost skeletal physique, one could make out every protrusion of bone on her body. Nonexistent muscle and pale skin did little to give her strength. Even if she charged at her with pliers in hand, she would do little more than stumble and bruise skin. Such a hypothetical was completely meaningless. By the time she had fully thought it out, Five had grabbed the pliers and began to tear out a nail. Rather than stop her, Mari did what she had been doing since: watched with eyes unnaturally open. And she watched as the pliers flew towards her feet. Again, if she was strong, she could have ran over and knocked one of her teeth out. It would be easier that way. But she wasn't. Like a cruel version of the objects that teachers passed around a classroom that designated a speaker, all eyes would have been on her. She chose to use this moment to unload all of her thoughts at once. [b]"The easiest way to win a game is not to play,"[/b] she began, [b]"the fastest way out would be to draw lots and just kill from there."[/b] She was entirely blunt in every way possible. Each word was as matter-of-fact as the rest, void of nearly any exertion or emotion. [b]"One in seven the king ends up winning, one in seven that everyone else survives, five in seven that a few people survive. If I die from it, so be it."[/b] She paused for a brief moment. In truth, she wanted to live. She wanted to see him again. She wanted him to tell her that it was all going to be okay. But just knowing that he would be safe from whatever harm the unknown malefactors brought was enough for her. As long as he was safe, she was okay with going through pain again. She was okay with never seeing him again if she knew he would be safe. [b]"You wouldn't get arrested for something like that, either. Extenuating circumstances."[/b] She took a knee on the cold, rotting wood flooring. Without an ounce of hesitation, she rested the pair of pliers on her bottom lip. It pressed against her canine. The cold and bloody metal was cool to the touch. Unlike the girl before her, she wouldn't give anyone the enjoyment of her suffering. Her tongue held steady behind it all. Quickly, she took a single deep breath and plunged her face—pliers first—into the ground. She didn't scream. No, it was too familiar to scream. This wasn't a brand new experience for her. Unlike Five, Mari's pain was incredibly easy to handle. It was sudden, it was expected, and it was fast. Like pulling off a bandaid, her body quickly went to compensate her suffering with as many endorphins as it could. But still, it hurt like hell. Tears welled up in her eyes as her mouth opened. A glob of blood and spit fell out alongside a familiar white mass. In a pained motion, she grabbed the bloody tooth and hucked it towards the others. For now, she just lay on the ground with pliers in hand, clutching them as tight as she could with groans of pain audible between the dripping of her bloody saliva.