I walked through the door to see my friends gathered in a room. They all sat in silence, and the tense atmosphere made it clear that they were all concerned. Scared, even. Seeing their expressions reminded me of the thoughts running through my head as I made my escape. Back then, I was terrified of what might happen to them.

  Now, I’m face to face with that reality.

  Yori and Mei smiled as they saw me. They gestured for me to sit next to them, but the atmosphere still felt heavy. I was relieved to see them and the others, but I had to be careful. I knew that at least one of them was a traitor.

  I couldn’t let them see that I was calculating right now. I had to show them the Akira that they know. The kidnapping would put him on edge, but he’d be happy to see everyone.

  “Hello everyone. My name is Keiko. I’m sure you all want to ask Akira about how his game went, but I’d like to give you all some more information on what you’ll be doing while you’re here.”

  Keiko already mentioned they were playing games. If we all played games against strangers, it would be safe to assume that we’ll compete against strangers in the future. I slipped into the chair next to Yori and Mei as Keiko continued.

  “Over the course of your stay, you will be competing with each other to earn points. There will be games where you work together, and games where you directly compete with each other. If you reach zero points, you will get eliminated.”

  Murmurs immediately broke out.

  “Eliminated? Are they going to kill us?” Hibiki panically asked. Her voice shook as she frantically looked around the room, waiting for someone to answer.

  “No… there’s no way… right?” Nobu tried to comfort her, but everyone knew those words were meaningless.

  “Well… they did kidnap us…” Yaeko added as her voice trembled.

  Yori and Mei both looked at each other, and then at me. I’ve known them long enough where I could read their expressions. “What do you think, Akira?” “Akira, say something to calm them down.” They had innocent intentions, but there’s no point in me lying to comfort them. Imagine I calmed everyone down, just for their deepest fears to be confirmed.

  “Guys, we should hear her out before we panic.” Yori tried to stabalise his voice. He wanted to calm everyone down, but he couldn’t look anyone in the eyes as he spoke. A few seconds passed with everyone being silent.

  I realised that Keiko could’ve put a stop to this by simply asking for silence as she explained, yet she let us panic. I looked her in the eyes, trying to determine why she was waiting.

  “I apologise for the methods we used to gather you here. I completely understand your fears.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I can assure you there are no penalties for anyone that gets eliminated. We will need to knock you out before we let you return to your normal lives.”

  Keiko softened her voice. “This is necessary to protect our anonymity. Other than that, we won’t harm you in any way.” She stared at me as she spoke, seeing if I could keep my cool despite the audacity of her lie. While she’s trying to act innocent, we both knew that the show might not harm us, but they don’t have to.

  One of us is doing it for them.

  I ignored her as I looked around and saw a few smiles. Yori and Nobu tried to cheer everyone up, but it wasn’t enough.

  We were still kidnapped.

  Keiko sensed the lingering unease and kept going.

  “Everyone in this group got past ‘Tactical Rock, Paper, Scissors!’ without reaching zero points. We will keep playing games until there’s only one player left. That player will be given 1,000,000 yen.”

  All of my friends looked at each other and started getting excited over the prospect of winning 1,000,000 yen. I joined in with the celebrations to avoid attracting any extra attention, but I noticed something very concerning.

  I already suspected there was a traitor when I talked to Keiko’s boss about this, but we weren’t specific when we defined the word ‘traitor’. In this context, the word ‘traitor’ could mean someone who wants to betray our group during the game, or it could simply be someone who entered us into the game without our consent.

  If there was no malicious intent, why kidnap us? Anyone entering us into this game for the prize money could’ve just told us about it - we would’ve joined willingly. The traitor had a reason for bringing us here without us knowing it was their idea. When you combine that with the 1,000,000 yen prize money, there’s one immediate conclusion that comes to mind.

  The traitor wanted to ruin our friendships.

  Money is a massive motivator. A lot of people would be willing to do anything for 1,000,000 yen. The fact that the traitor wanted to keep their identity hidden means that they could be planning on using the prize money as a means to damage our friendships.

  Right now, they would be waiting, watching to see how long it would take for us to turn on each other… no… not even… they might plan to actively manipulate us… to forcibly turn us against each other.

  I couldn’t let this happen.

  I won’t let this happen.

  There was one thing I didn’t understand yet. From my conversation with Keiko’s boss, I know that we’re on some kind of show. If there was a TV show with a prize pool of 1,000,000 yen, it would be something that everyone knew about. Since I’ve never heard of anything like this, this show must be a private show that few people know about.

  If that’s the case, how do they get the funding for the 1,000,000 yen?

  I can assume that Yuto is competing with his group right now. Ren’s group probably got kidnapped as well, so there must be several prize pools. TV shows normally get funding from sponsors and money from advertisements. If this was a private show though, they wouldn’t be able to get paid this way. I could only think of one explanation. It sounds crazy, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

  What if there’s a small audience rich enough that they’d be willing to donate the prize money to watch this game where friendships get ruined?

  Wait - that can’t be all of it. If that’s the case, what was the point of my game with Yuto?

  Why have the hidden message in the rules?

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  What if one half of the show was about watching us get torn apart for entertainment, but the other half is watching to see what strategies we come up with?

  It makes me sick when I think about it, but I don’t see any alternatives.

  Assuming the prize pool is even real to begin with, what would happen if the supposed ‘traitor’ didn’t actually try to ruin our friendships? I suppose we wouldn’t be given the prize money?

  Perhaps the traitor signed a contract with this organisation in which they agreed the prize money would only be given out if they tried to break our friendships?

  In which case, is the traitor here because they want to ruin our friendships, or are they here because they want the prize money? No, that can’t be correct. The traitor wouldn’t go through the trouble of kidnapping us and breaking our friendships just to compete for the prize pool without a guarantee of winning.

  The traitor’s main motivation had to be breaking our friendships.

  The prize money was just a means to that, and would be a ‘cherry on top’ if it was real and they won. I took another look around. One of the seven people sitting around me was a traitor, casually blending in with the others.

  The game hadn’t started for them yet. But for me, it was already underway.

  I’ll do anything to protect my real friends. I’ll do whatever it takes to identify and expose the traitor.

  One of them had made their move.

  And they weren’t the only one hiding behind a smile.

  For now, I put all of those thoughts aside. I would have time to think about the traitor, their intentions, and the inner workings of the show later.

  Following Keiko’s announcement that we’d be competing for 1,000,000 yen without any penalties for losing, the group began celebrating. Laughter broke out, as well as cheers. Yori even began clapping. However, I couldn’t afford to celebrate so aimlessly. This was a critical moment. I needed to scan and analyse everyone’s face, body language, and eyes. I needed to see who was hearing this news for the first time, and who was happy to hear it.

  I needed to see who was faking a reaction, and who was planning ahead. I had seven people to analyse, and I would only have ten seconds at most before people stopped reacting to the news. I had to be quick. There wouldn’t be enough time for conclusive tells, I’d have to settle for micro-reads. While they celebrated, I put on a smile and began scanning their faces.

  I know Yori and Mei the most. Even if I don’t get this information right now, I’ll have the easiest time reading them later down the road, so I can focus on everyone else for now. Likewise, Nobu’s currently the least likely to be the traitor, so I prioritised analysing the other four.

  As Yaeko and Osamu were sitting together, I scanned them both simultaneously. They were turned toward each other, closed off from the group - a natural reaction. When people hear good news, their initial instinct is to either look at the person telling them the news, or the person they most want to share the news with. Assuming they like each other, it’s no doubt they’d look at each other when they heard the news. Neither of their eyes showed any trace of uncertainty, so I concluded that they were both staying in the moment. Neither of them were thinking about the impending betrayals in the future.

  I moved onto Choko and Hibiki, who were also sitting next to each other. I only had a few seconds before the shock factor of Keiko’s announcement would wear off. I’d have to streamline my thoughts.

  Unlike Yaeko and Osamu, both of them were enjoying the news with the group. Choko was quiet. Happy, though some concern lingered beneath it. She masked it well, though I noticed clenched hands. It was hard to read. This was consistent with her personality. She’s always been the type of person to keep to herself. Her worry was inconclusive. It didn’t tell me anything. After all, we were just kidnapped.

  As for Hibiki, I couldn’t sense any malice in her eyes. She smiled and locked eyes with Mei. She shot her a thumbs up gesture, and then continued celebrating. Her reaction was carefree. Like Osamu and Yaeko, she didn’t sense the sinister undertones of what was going on. She grabbed Choko’s wrist to get her attention and to celebrate with her. In this moment, Choko’s eyes lit up as she turned to Hibiki. Not a trace of doubt left. That kind of comfort - unnaturally quick, too complete. Just how close were they? Or could this be a sign of something more sinister?

  “Please could you guys settle down. I understand that you’re very excited and want to celebrate, but there’ll be time for that later. I’d like to give you some more details about your stay here, as well as the next game you’ll be playing.”

  Everyone stopped celebrating. They all relaxed, letting Keiko take the lead. However, I was still scanning and analysing. Sure, the initial shock factor of the prize-pool had worn off, but I was searching for anything that could give me a lead.

  Yori and Mei both looked at Keiko, waiting for her to continue.

  Osamu and Yaeko were looking at each other and eventually shifted their gaze to Keiko.

  Hibiki sank back into her chair while staring at Keiko. Was she relaxed? Or just exhausted?

  Choko stared blankly at no one in particular.

  Nobu rested his chin on his hand, looking anxious. He was the only one who looked worried. Did he know something we didn’t?

  “As you’ve been told, you can use your points for anything during your stay. So, how do you gain points?” Getting our attention after announcing the prize pool would have been a tough task. Keiko got around that by immediately bringing our attention to something related to that prize pool.

  Points.

  She opened by explaining how we would be getting points. One thing didn’t make any sense though. What was the point of announcing the prize pool before getting into important details?

  Was that intentional? To distract us?

  Has the traitor’s game already begun?

  I wanted to continue analysing, but if anyone noticed how I kept looking around, it could make me look suspicious. I decided to wait until the next big piece of information.

  “There’s two main ways you can get points. You can earn or lose points directly through games, like the first game you all just played.” She paused. If I had to guess, my gut’s telling me she’s about to drop a big piece of information. I had to be ready to act.

  “The second way is by directly transferring points to each other. As long as both parties agree, there’s no limit to this.” When people hear a piece of news like this, they’ll immediately turn to the person they trust most. That’s why I first glanced at Nobu. As someone who cares about all his friends, and trusts all of them, I wondered who he’d look at. He initially glanced at Yori. When he noticed Yori wasn’t looking back at him, he shifted his gaze to me. I smiled to hide my analysing, but I knew this would be useful info.

  As expected, Mei and Yori both looked at me, whilst Osamu and Yaeko looked at each other. The one surprise was that while Hibiki looked towards Choko, Choko was once again staring blankly towards the table. Maybe the kidnapping shook her up more than I realised. Or maybe she didn’t trust any of us. Or maybe she didn’t want to look any of us in the eye. I didn’t want to dwell on this. My gut feeling was still there. Keiko was about to drop another bomb.

  “Since you can transfer points to each other, it may be in your best interest to think about building alliances…”

  I quickly realised how terrible this was, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

  “So that you can work together and protect each other.”

  She didn’t need to finish her sentence. Her point was clear.

  It was also clear what she was trying to do.

  She’s setting up a game for the traitor to run rampant and rip apart our friendships.