The Cursed Prodigy and The Three Special-Grades
Chapter 4: The Party
Previous Chapter Next ChapterSugarcube Corner, The day of Yuta's arrival to Equestria
The chill beat of the music and the dancing ponies put a smile on Yuta's face as he took a sip of fruit punch from his hands, his katana case slung across his shoulder. Yuta wouldn't say it, but large, intense parties weren't really his thing, yet somehow, Pinkie knew that and had organised a much more relaxing party for him. Sighing, Yuta sat by a rather large table at the side of Sugarcube Corner and shuffled closer to the wall, leaning his katana case against the wall as he peered out the window.
"What'cha doing all alone, Yuta?"
Turning to the voice, Yuta's eyes met Pinkie's. Hers radiated an energy he couldn't quite grasp. She scooted over the seat across from him and sat down.
"Oh! Nothing, Miss Pinkie Pie!" Yuta waved off, causing Pinkie to giggle. "Well, I'm just wondering how my juniors are doing..."
"I think they're doing fine!" Pinkie replied, reaching far off to the side that Yuta's peripherals couldn't quite see. With a strong pull, Pinkie's hoof had hauled three new faces to the seats beside her's. Yuta's eyes widened upon seeing his juniors in the flesh.
"O-Okkotsu?" Fushiguro stammered, a hand grabbing his head.
"Fushiguro!?" Yuta points, creasing his brow.
"Hey, Fushiguro. You know this guy?" Yuji points back with a thumb.
"Enough of the introductions, where are we!?" Nobara interjected, slamming a hand onto the table.
Yuta rubbed the back of his head. "It's a long story..."
...
After thoroughly explaining the detail of what happened to Yuta to the three juniors because the author is way too lazy to type allat shit out, Fushiguro sat in mock contemplation, his thumb and finger on his cheek as the other arm hugged his body.
"...That's quite the experience..." Fushiguro mumbled.
"I know!" Yuta laughed, "But since you're here. What are you going to do?"
"Well, we were going to play Uno!" Yuji cuts in, turning to Yuta. "You wanna join, Mr Senpai!?"
Yuta smiles, "I would love to! But I think we have to explain the rules to Miss Pinkie Pie first if we're all going to play together."
Pinkie blew a raspberry, "I already know how to play Uno, silly!"
"Oh? Does Equestria have Uno, too?"
"Nope! However, the chapter requires me to know the rules for Uno, so the author doesn't need to type or transition this entire segue into us playing Uno. But seeing as he spent more time on my dialogue with you, it kinda backfired on 'em." Pinkie finished with a cute blink of her eyes. Fushiguro deadpanned her, while Nobara and Yuji aww at the pretty little pony.
Yuta chuckled, "Ooookay." He dragged, trying to change the topic. "Since Pinkie knows the rules, let's play!"
Taking the deck of cards from Fushiguro, Yuta sufficiently shuffled it before evenly distributing the deck into seven cards for each player.
"Are we playing by house rules?" Nobara asked, taking the seven cards before her and organising them in her hand.
"Yeah, stackable power-ups are all game," Yuji replied, throwing a card Red 3 down to start the game. "Let the games begin!!"
Yuta sat on the far left of the seat, Yuji took the middle, and Fushiguro took the far right. On the opposite side, Nobara sat directly across from Fushiguro, and Pinkie took the seat across from Yuta. Playing in an anti-clockwise formation, Fushiguro threw down a Yellow 3.
Nobara quickly tossed a Yellow Plus 2, "Sorry, Pinkie," Shee sneered. "Gotta start chipping away at the competition, you know?"
"I'm sorry too," Pinkie said, throwing down a Green Plus 2. "That it'll never hit me!"
While the two stared daggers at one another, Yuta drew four cards from the deck. Through the multiple pieces of cards, one in particular caught his eye. A colour-changing Plus 4. That'll come in handy. With a happy gesture from Yuta, Yuji took it as the green light to make his move, putting down three 5 cards starting from green to blue, and finally red. Dropping his hand down to three cards. He smirked and looked at the Zenin, "Good luck beating that!"
Fushiguro didn't make an expression; instead, he chose to let his cards speak for him as he placed down a Red Reversal.
Yuji stared at the card and looked back at his hand. "Damn it." Sighing, he reluctantly draws cards to his hand.
Nobara broke out laughing at this, "BWAHAHAHAH!!! WHY DID YOU END ON A COLOUR YOU DON'T HAVE!?!?"
"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW FUSHIGURO HAD A REVERSAL!? I THOUGHT IT'D MAKE A LOOP AROUND AND CHANGE COLOURS BY THEN!!"
Yuta ignored the bickering and placed down four Zeros, starting from red and ending with blue. Which gave way for Pinkie to intercept the two arguing humans with a card from her hoof.
"Now settle down, little fillies and colts!!" Pinkie declared, "Watch in awe at my most awesome play yet!!" Throwing down three skips, Pinkie had managed to damn near skip the entire roster and back onto herself. Huffing at a job well done, she pats herself on the back.
Yuta stared at her hand... or hoof, and saw three cards left. Looking down on his fan of cards, he plucked one out and tossed it on the increasing pile of cards.
"Plus two Yellow."
Everyone at the table could hear the distant sound of a shattered window as Pinkie wilts in her seat and draws the necessary cards.
The game carried on like this, with whirlwinds of ups and downs, card-slamming showdowns, and the occasional loop-de-loop round that turned the entire game upside down. Hands flew across the table, growing large and cartoony with every card gained, then shrinking back down in defeat as precious cards were lost. The laughter that had filled the room earlier had morphed into a tense silence, broken only by the dramatic thumps of cards being thrown down. Eventually, they all came to a stalemate. Yuta, Fushiguro, and Nobara had three cards left on hand, Yuji had four, and Pinkie was dead last at five.
Somewhere along the game, the cycle had reversed back and forth until it returned to its original anti-clockwise rotation. All the shouting and yelling caught everybody in the shop's attention as they crowded around the humans with playful interest. With a smirk. Fushiguro calmly placed his card down, a Red Nine. Two more, and he wins the game.
Nobara tossed a Plus 2 and smirked at Pinkie again.
"Kicking a mare while she's down, eh?" Pinkie slammed another Plus 2. "I don't think so~!"
Yuta, desperate to avoid the growing stack of cards in the centre, bit his lip and hesitantly threw down a Plus 2 of his own. Beside him, Yuji followed suit with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry about that, Fushiguro," Yuji mumbled, his voice laced with a mock apology. With a playful nudge, he sent the deck of cards sliding across the table towards Fushiguro.
Fushiguro's smirk widened into a full-blown grin. "Shouldn't you be apologizing to Nobara instead, Itadori?" he countered, placing down another Plus 2 of his own. Letting him run free of the Plus 8 combo. "Uno."
A collective gasp echoed around them, but Fushiguro's gloating was short-lived as Nobara slammed a Plus Four Wild card onto the table, shifting the tide of battle. "I don't need your apology!!" she declared, "Eat shit, Fushiguro!"
Pinkie placed a hoof on Nobara's shoulder, "Hey," The party pony said softly. "That's not nice to say to your friends."
Nobara looked over at Pinkie, her eyes sparkling. Sighing in defeat of cuteness, she looked back at the human across from her and huffed her arms. "Yeah, sorry, Fushiguro--"
"IS WHAT A LOSER WOULD SAY!!" Pinkie shrieked, her voice bouncing off the walls like a hyperactive echo. In a blur of pink, she slammed a Draw Four card onto the table, the force nearly knocking the entire deck over. A hoof landed right before Yuta, its owner practically vibrating with barely contained glee. "EAT IT, YUTA!" she declared, her voice laced with playful malice. However, Yuta placed his Plus Four to complement Pinkie's. "WHAT!?"
"I had this for a while now!" Yuta points at the draw four. "I just didn't know when I should use it."
All eyes were on Itadori now, and his face was unreadable. Suddenly, his hand grabs Fushiguro's shoulder, causing sweat to bead down Zenin's face as the card in his hands trembles.
"I'm sorry, my brother," Yuji said with the most shit-eating grin. "RAHHH!! DRAW FOUR!!!" Yuji slammed his own Plus Four onto the table so hard that the impact caused it to splinter slightly. Reeling his head back, Yuji tried to give his best Sukuna impression as he laughed his ass off... evil-y.
The room erupted in pandemonium. Nobara doubled over in laughter, tears welling up in her eyes. Even Pinkie, momentarily stunned by the sheer audacity of Yuji's move, found herself snorting with amusement. But Fushiguro's reaction was the most dramatic. He sat there, stunned, the weight of a potential draw 18 hanging heavy in the air like a cursed object, and he cowered under the pressure. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his hand instinctively tightened around the card he held. The corner of his vision darkens as he sees the stack of Uno cards waiting for him, calling for him. Fushiguro's grip on his last card tightened even further. His knuckles turned white, and a faint tremor ran through his hand.
"Fushiguro? Are you going to draw your cards?" Yuta inquired politely, a hint of concern cutting through his usual goofy grin. Suddenly, Fushiguro released his grip on the card, letting it cascade dramatically onto the table with a soft thud. "You dropped your last card," Yuta reached over the table, across the celebrating Yuji, and picked it up the best he could without looking at it.
"Here you go!" Yuta said, looking up with Fushiguro's card in hand. But the pose he was in caused Yuta to stumble back, a look of pure bewilderment replacing his face.
Fushiguro's arms were outstretched before him, balled up into fists with a slight upward angle. His normally stoic expression had contorted into a frightening grimace, his eyes glowing a faint purple. The lights on the ceiling of Sugarcube Corner, previously humming innocuously, began to flicker erratically.
A low, ominous humming filled the air, sending shivers down everyone's spines. Toads circled the table from the shadows, and a chorus of wolves howled at the unseen moon.
"Umm... Fushiguro...?" Yuta asked his voice barely a squeak.
"With this treasure... I summon..." Fuhiguro recites,
Finally broken out of his little dance, Yuji glances over at his friend. "What are you-"
"『Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General』..."
"Oh sh-"
"『MAHORAGA』!!!"