Chapter 1 – Killjoy
Junto looks around but sees nobody. He decides to pick up the pack of cards. He doesn’t see anything wrong with taking the mysterious deck home with him.
After arriving home, Junto quickly heads upstairs to his room. Click. The computer is turned on. While the computer is loading, Junto takes the cards out of the pack. The first card that Junto sees is a plain card with a number ‘1’ written on it.
“Huh. I guess these aren’t anything special.’
Out of curiosity, Juno looks at the next card and notices it has writing on it.
“What the hell?”
Written on the card is a mysterious text. It reads ‘Your opponent now sees spiders.’ Junto looks at the card in confusion.
“What does this even mean?”
By now, the computer has turned on. Junto opens up a web browser and begins typing.
‘Killjoy.’
Many search results pop up on the computer. Mostly related to the meaning of the word Killjoy.
“Let’s try this again.”
‘Killjoy card game.’
The screen shows that zero results have been found.
‘Killjoy playing cards.’
The screen once again shows that zero results have been found.
Junto stares at the cards in confusion.
The very next day, Junto turns up to class, carrying the cards in his pocket.
“Oh, hey Junto!”
Three students look over at Junto. They are Junto’s friends. Daigo, Hiroki and Yuto. Junto walks over.
“Yo. Can I ask you guys something?”
Yuto smiles.
“What’s the matter? Need some advice on how to bag yourself a hottie?”
Junto is confused by this as all he can currently think about are the weird cards.
“What? No.”
Junto quickly gets onto the topic at hand.
“Have you guys ever heard of a card game called Killjoy?”
The second that Junto mentioned this, just outside the classroom door, a girl is walking by and suddenly stops in her tracks to listen in on the conversation. Junto’s friends all look at each other in confusion.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Me neither.”
Junto sighs and shrugs his shoulders.
“I thought not.”
Hiroki wonders what all of this is about.
“Why are you asking us?”
Junto decides that it’s probably not a good idea to tell everybody about the cards just yet.
“Don’t worry about it, honestly.”
The mysterious girl who is listening outside clenches her fists.
“I need to stop him before it’s too late.”
When lunch break comes, Junto and Hiroki decide to head to the cafeteria together. As they walk through the busy corridors, the mysterious girl follows them and begins to get closer towards them. The mysterious girl puts her hand inside Junto’s pocket and grabs the pack of cards. She slowly begins to pull them out but Hiroki grabs her arm before she can pull the pack of cards from Junto’s pocket. The mysterious girl and Hiroki share a glance and then the girl suddenly releases her grip on the cards. Junto is oblivious to the events around him. Junto notices that Hiroki is no longer next to him and suddenly turns around and notices Hiroki grabbing the girl’s arm.
“What’s going on?”
Hiroki turns to Junto with a serious expression.
“I just caught her trying to pickpocket your cards.”
Junto looks surprised.
“Do you know what these cards are?”
The girl gets out of Hiroki’s grasp and begins to run away.
“Wait a second!”
Junto begins chasing her, but after a few steps, Hiroki quickly stops him.
“Wait a second, look on the floor.”
Junto looks on the ground to see a piece of paper with an address and a password written on it. He then picks it up.
“It must’ve fallen out of her pocket.”
Hiroki and Junto both look at the paper. Their attention is immediately drawn to the writing under the address which reads ‘Password: Don’t be a killjoy.’ Junto knows what his next step is. Hiroki looks at Junto.
“Are you going to go there?”
Junto nods his head.
After school, Junto and Hiroki begin heading to the address that was written on the paper. Hiroki is walking alongside his bicycle and talking to Junto. As they approach the destination, Hiroki stops in his tracks.
“Listen, Junto. I don’t really know if this is a good idea.”
Junto stops.
“Look, you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want too. I’m not going to force you to do anything.”
Hiroki seems troubled for a second.
“You seem dead set on doing this.”
Hiroki hops on his bicycle.
“Call me if there’s any trouble and I’ll come back.”
Junto nods in agreement.
“Yeah. Later man.”
Hiroki begins to ride away as Junto heads towards the address. Once he arrives, he notices that the door is hidden away. It’s down an alley where it can’t be easily found. The door is strongly secured and appears to be made of solid steel. The lighting is poor here and the area appears to be rather dangerous.
Junto walks towards the door. He prepares to knock on the door but stops suddenly.
‘Once I do this, there’s no turning back.’
Junto looks determined and knocks on the door. Suddenly, a voice can be heard from the other side.
“What’s the password?”
Junto looks at the piece of paper with the password written on it.
“Don’t be a killjoy.”
Soundly an unlocking sound is heard and the door slightly opens. Junto walks into the door and braces himself for what might be on the other side.
All that Junto finds is seven people of various ages and occupations sitting and drinking. An unoccupied table rest in the centre of the room. The table has a red button in the centre which has ‘Killjoy’ written on it.
Once of the voices in the room call out to Junto.
“You here to play killjoy?”
Junto turns to face the voice. It’s a middle-aged punk-looking man who dresses like he is part of a motorcycle gang.
“What’s your name, Kid?”
Junto courageously faces the punk.
“My names Junto. What’s yours?”
The punk smiles a sinister smile.
“My name’s Bunzo. Fancy a round of killjoy?”
Junto nods and quickly the room looks at them both. They both sit down on the table which holds the red button in the centre. As they face each other, Junto takes out his killjoy deck and puts it on the table. Bunzo begins to shuffle his own deck and Junto quickly mimics him. Everyone else in the room is fixated on the game. Some people even begin to place wagers. Bunzo begins to speak as he shuffles his cards.
“You know, I was part of a gang when I was younger. We were called the downers. The only thing that could replicate that feeling in this world, is this card game. This card game is the only thing that in this world that’s nastier than our leader was.”
Bunzo puts his deck of cards on the table and draws the top six. Junto mimics him. Bunzo gets suspicious of Junto.
“Hey, kid. You don’t know how to play this game, do you?”
Junto begins to sweat as Bunzo continues to speak.
“Don’t worry. You’re just lucky that you’re learning the rules in one of the three small clubs and not the Killjoy arena. They’re far more merciless over there. ”
Junto doesn’t understand what Bunzo is talking about. Junto does not understand what to do and lets Bunzo take the initiative.
“You can go first.”
Bunzo finds this puzzling but lowers his head and begins to pick out a card.
“It’s your first time playing Killjoy? When a player with no knowledge of the game tries Killjoy for the first time, we call this ‘a devils initiation’.”
Bunzo takes a card out of his hand and reveals it to Shuji before putting it on the table. The card reads ‘Your opponent can’t breathe until they end their next turn’. Junto is about to pull a card out but notices something terrifying. He can no longer breath. He keeps trying but finds himself physically incapable of inhaling.
‘Is this the end? Am I going to die?’
