Truth... or Dare?

Ryuu watched as the game began, first with Tamashi. He couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear as he watched him get the tattoo done on his face, a laugh threatening to escape when he noticed the figure that Penelope had tucked behind his ear, unsure if anyone else would notice.

However, then it was Tamashi’s turn to go, and Ryuu was almost positive he was going to have to answer the question of the day himself, but then Tamashi surprised him and turned to Rin to ask the question. Interesting. That was surprising, seeing as Tamashi seemed to like him so, even if Ryuu find his personality a little too much for his taste. Still, it wasn’t like he was jealous that Tamashi picked someone other than him. Ryuu actually quite enjoyed learning a little bit about the puppeteer. Knowing people was incredibly important, so he would know how to manipulate them into doing something for him, and following orders when the time came.

However, much like Paris would affect Ryuu later in the future when he would find himself on a ship not remembering his time at Hope’s Peak when he had turned into a much better person, he actually kind of liked Rin, knowing how it was to feel shy and nervous a lot of the time.

Then Rin asked Kenji for a riddle. Ryuu’s ego was large, and knowing that he was the strategist of the group this was his chance to tear down the skateboarder no matter what riddle came his way. However, after a short time, just a split second before Kenji began his riddle, Ryuu stopped himself, deciding that he would let Kenji have this one. After all, it was riddle that his sister gave him, and well… Ryuu didn’t want to dishonor Kenji’s sister, even if Ryuu was all gung-ho about tearing down Kenji himself… Or perhaps it was because Ryuu realized that he would be a jerk, and decided that he would let the skateboarder have this one.

His father would be so disappointed in him.

“That’s a good riddle, Kenji,” Ryuu said quietly looking down into his lap, twiddling his fingers as to distract himself from the fact it felt so wrong to let a riddle go unanswered, despite the fact he knew the answer almost instantly. “You’ve stumped me too.”

Ryuu wrenched his head up to stare at the one who had just answered the riddle. Shit. No, he knew the answer, he wasn’t stupid. He knew the answer before everyone else! He promised! But it wasn’t like anyone would believe that. Ryuu closed his eyes tightly and soon clenched his fists. He could hear it now, the jeering and teasing and even his father and mother.

Haha, Ryuu was beat by a girl.

Whoa, I never would’ve thought Ryuu could get beat.

How could you be so stupid, son? You’ve disgraced this entire family.

You’re just like her. A disgrace. Maybe you should just die too.

You’re no son of mine.

No! He had never been beaten! He could never lose, even in a simple game like this, and yet the perception would be that he was because he was being nice. Ryuu opened his eyes quickly and released his hands. No, no, no, he had to take a breath. Oh right, breathing was important. He released the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, hoping no one had noticed the extreme reaction he had just had, even if very little of it was a physical reaction and most of it was a mental reaction. His face had grown pale and he began taking shaky breaths.

“You did… you did…” Ryuu had to spit the words out. It was so terribly hard, his pride was wounded and he felt like he should just go die in a ditch and no one would ever miss him. “Good, K-Kumori.” No, no, no, he could never be nice again, he could never let something like this go ever. He could never let this happen again. People would think they could beat him now, they would challenge him and it would get exhausting.

He could never claim he was unbeaten ever again. He could never have a perfect record ever again, because no one would ever believe him, even if it was technically true. He just pretended he didn’t know, but no one would ever know that, nor believe that. They would just think that it was his ego getting in the way, the ego making him claim to know something they thought he didn’t. There was no escape. He was a broken strategist. He was worthless. Who would ever want him to be their strategist? He could fail, he could blow their cover, someone could beat him, and this would be offered up as proof.