The Deck of Cards

A strong gust of wind rushed out of my palm the moment I called out my weapon’s name.

I instinctively squinted my eyes, trying not to close them completely so I wouldn’t miss the show.

Thankfully the pendant responded to my calling out to it despite not being its rightful owner, and for the first time ever, I saw what was to become my weapon.

Zuria was right— it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen back home.

Floating in front and above me like a rainbow was a shining deck of cards, double the size of regular playing cards, neatly splayed and separated by a few inches from each other.

They were all facing me, so I could see the pictures on the cards: a white rabbit, a caterpillar… Although for some reason, I couldn’t make out what any of the others were.

“Whoa…” Pierce muttered under his breath. “This is the first time I see Amanita up close.”

Oh.

“This is Amanita?” I said, without taking my eyes away from the cards.

“Yes, Alice,” Zuria nodded. “Amanita is a magical deck of cards that lets you use the powers of those that serve you. At the moment, only the Caterpillar Spade and the White Rabbit Spade are under your command, so those are the only two cards you can use, for now.”

I stared harder at the cards.

It’s true, I couldn’t tell what any of the other pictures were - and I wasn’t sure if it was because the art was garbled, or if it was my eyes that sucked. Now it all made sense.

“So… How do I use it?”

“It’s simple. You point your pendant at the card you want to use, and then—”

“Ah, I get it!” I rushed to reply. “Like this, right!?”

I pointed the pendant at the card with the white rabbit picture on it, ignoring Zuria’s attempt to stop me and immediately yelled out what I felt sounded right.

“It’s time to duel!”

To my surprise, the card actually flashed, but… it poofed itself away, and was suddenly gone from my deck.

“Huh!? What!? What happened!? What did I do wrong!?”

Zuria let out the looooongest sigh.

“...I wasn’t done explaining it.”

“Ugh!” I stomped my foot. “Well you explain every single thing, and it’s boring, and I always tune you out! That’s your own fault!”

Pierce laughed in the distance.

“Haha! Yeah, the White Rabbit is usually a very nervous or very serious individual, missy. You’re not gonna get anything out of her that doesn’t put you to sleep.”

“You shut up, porcupine dude. You’re not helping at all!”

“It’s Hedgehog.”

“They’re the same!”

“Huh!?” Pierce suddenly started walking towards me, summoning his mallet. “Say that again, asshole!”

“Uwaugh—”

I instinctively stepped back, then realized the floating deck of cards followed me.

A quick glance at the cards reminded me I still had one fully visible to me: the caterpillar.

“B-Back off!” I swallowed. “I’ll blow you away!”

“Hahaha! Yeah, how!? You don’t even know how Amanita works!”

…Fuck.

He was right.

“Alice…”

Zuria suddenly called to me, now close enough that she could place her hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t be scared,” she said to me in a quiet voice,as if she didn’t want Pierce to hear. “If you can summon Amanita, you can probably use it as intended, as well.”

“Wait, what? You want me to actually fight Pierce!? Wasn’t I gonna fight you!? Isn’t this my training arc!?”

“...Training arc?”

“Gah! I can’t fight Pierce! You heard him! He’ll kill me if I’m unworthy!”

“He’ll kill you anyway if you keep insulting him.”

“Don’t say that so calmly!!?”

“...You have one card left in your deck,” she continued, ignoring my distress. “Point at it with your pendant, and call out ‘weapon’ - just like that.”

“Weapon? Just, the word weapon? That— WAUGH!?”

I saw Pierce leap in the air in front of us, holding his mallet above his head, one second away from flattening us into pancakes.

“W-Weapon!! WEAPON!!”

I shrieked pathetically and shut my eyes closed, doing exactly as told and hoping I wasn’t too late.

CRASH!!!

I heard the familiar thud of Pierce’s mallet hitting the ground— right in front of us, missing us by mere inches.

I opened my eyes slowly, then I realized there was a thick screen of pink smoke surrounding all three of us: Zuria behind me and Pierce, who was now on the ground and looked unconscious.

The weight of the pendant in my hand had also changed.

Instead, I was holding a kiseru - a pipe I only recognized from video games and manga, but that I’ve also recently seen in person.

It was the same sort of pipe the woman called Ambrosia–the Caterpillar Spade– had been holding when I met her.

Flashbacks of the smoke knocking me unconscious and changing my clothes into what I’m wearing right now haunted me all at once, and my eyes darted quickly from the pipe, to Zuria, to Pierce’s corpse in front of us.

Wait… his corpse!?

I looked at Zuria in a panic again.

“N-No way… did I kill him? Is this pink smoke coming from the pipe!? Is it poison!?”

“Who knows,” she answered, matter-of-factly.

“Who knows!?” I repeated, extending my trembling hand with the pipe in it as far away from my face as possible, holding my breath. “I didn’t wanna kill him! And I don’t want to die, either!”

Zuria smiled.

“It’s okay, Allen.”

Oh. She called me by my real name.

Did that mean Pierce was really dead!?

“The smoke from your weapon won’t hurt other Spades, so you and I are fine.”

I breathed in, finally.

But then dread overtook me a second later.

“Th-then… does that mean… this is poison?”

She shook her head.

“It could be, if that’s what you intend for it to be. But you didn’t even know what you wanted when you summoned it, so it has the same effect of the last time you saw it in action.”

“Oh… That means… Pierce is probably just knocked unconscious, like I was?”

“Correct.”

I felt relief coursing through my veins.

I wasn’t ready to become a killer… again.