Shoulder-lengthed dark blue hair covering one eye, a timid huddled posture, and fidgeting fingers -- Emi Fujii was clearly not a 'people's person'. This was made more evident when Ruri closed the door to the empty classroom, causing Emi to jump like a kangaroo in fright. 

"Relax," Ruri turned to Emi with a smile of fake liveliness that lit up her pretty face, "I'm not going to bite you, Emi-chan."

In response, Emi let out a jittery laugh, "I, I sure hope not...! Um, w-what did you want to talk to me about, Ruri-chan...?"

"Well, you see..." Ruri sighed and leaned her back against the door to the classroom, feeling the dullness of her sheathed knife poking into her back. "Firstly, I  just want to say I'm really sorry for taking up your lunchtime, Emi-chan. I know you didn't have to say yes when I asked if I could have a word with you."

"N, no, it's okay...!" Emi forced a smile but was unable to hide her anxiousness.

"The thing is," Ruri stepped away from the door slowly and walked over to Emi where she was standing at the middle of the empty classroom. Emi felt her heard pound with each step that Ruri took towards her. 

Stopping in front of Emi, Ruri said, "I heard some rumours going around from the other girls about you and Shinji."

"..."

For the briefest flash of a second, Emi could swear she saw a flicker of an unrecognisable expression within Ruri's pale violet eyes. Something dark, vacant, and cold as ice. Certainly not an expression she would ever imagine to see on the popular school idol's face.

Stricken by fear at the glimpse of what she saw, Emi froze dumbly in her spot, speechless and immobile as she stared silently at Ruri's face with a cold sweat dripping down her temple. 

"Of course," Ruri smiled amicably, "it's my duty as part of my job at the student council to ensure the well-being of my fellow classmates." 

'Oh, that's right.' Emi thought to herself, then let out a shaky breath. 'Ruri-chan is the secretary at the student council so that's why she's asking me about this...' 

"So," Ruri tilted her head slightly with that same affable smile on her face, "You can tell me about it, Emi-chan."

Emi glanced at what she perceived was the genuine friendliness of Ruri's smile, then swallowed, contemplating on whether to tell Ruri or not. 

"To be honest," Ruri spoke in place of Emi's silence, "What I'm really worried about is whether you're being bullied by the other girls, Emi-chan."

"H-huh?" Emi blinked in confusion, "What do you mean, Ruri-chan...?"

"Well, I know the two of us are not really that close," Ruri continued with a look of concern, "but you don't strike me to be the kind of girl to be doing that sort of thing."

Emi blushed at that and stared downwards at her feet, "O-oh..."

Then, with a wistful sigh, Ruri took a few steps to the right of Emi, circling around her, "To be making a confession to another boy in our class..." Ruri stopped behind Emi and reached for the handle of the kitchen knife hidden underneath the back of her school shirt, "That's why I thought they might had been just making false rumours to tease you, Emi-chan..."

"T, that's... that's not it, Ruri-chan..." Emi's voice was quiet as she continued staring fixedly down at her black leather shoes with a bright blush, blissfully unaware that Ruri was brandishing a knife behind her back.

"Hm, what is it then?"

Ruri's pale violet eyes were detached and distant in stark contrast to her lively voice as she poised the blade of the knife right above the delicate nape of Emi's neck. 

~x~

"24."

The dark, musty basement appeared as though it was a shelter for a dog or something by a neglectful owner, a stained towel lying in a corner on the rubber tile floors acting as both a bed and a blanket, a bowl containing a mushy substance of sorts that was supposedly food, and a large and overly used but empty plastic water bottle next to it. 

Not a single window could be seen on all four sides of the worn down walls, with the only light coming from a tiny and dim light bulb hanging loosely from the ceiling. 

"24."

The burly voice repeated in a deep grunt that shook six-year-old Ruri awake from her half-asleep, dehydrated state. Her vision was blurry and her head pounding, but the sound of his voice was enough of a threat to keep her from dosing off again.

"Jack of diamonds." Ruri croaked out quietly in a raspy voice. 

"..."

The large shadow of a figure sitting in front of Ruri was quiet for a second, then—

BAM!

Suddenly, the small wooden table between them had expanded rapidly in Ruri's vision and a numbing pain seared across her face. She could hardly even feel the back of her hair being pulled from behind as the man lifted her head up from the table, hot blood dripping down her nose and face. 

"Wrong." The man said apathetically. "Try again."

Ruri squeezed her eyes shut in pain, rummaging her brain for the memory that the man was asking for.

'The 24th card.' Ruri thought. 'What was it? What was it again...?'

In the darkness of her closed vision, she could picture the deck of cards, the man shuffling the cards, then revealing them to her one by one. The memory was perfect in her mind, she could see each individual card being laid down on the wooden table, then the 24th card came and... it was blank. She couldn't see it.

"I... I can't remember..." Ruri whispered hoarsely. 

The man stared at Ruri silently and she whimpered, preparing herself for the punishment that was sure to come. The man's black beady eyes gazed into her face like pairs of stones, unfeeling, hard, and devoid of life. 

"Don't cry." He suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"H-huh?" Ruri mouthed. 

Without her even realising it, a single obscure tear had rolled down her face, meshing with the blood and dirt. She raised a hand to touch her cheek, feeling the wetness of the tear on her fingertip, then glanced down at it with a bewildered look. 

"Throw away your emotions, Ruri."

The man stared at her with a cold, studious look, "Emotions are useless, arbitrary, like poison for the human brain."

"I... I'm sorry..." Ruri mumbled, wiping at her face to rid the tear and some of the blood on her face.

"Don't be sorry." He replied sternly, "Clear your mind, Ruri. Take a breath. Exactly like I taught you."

Ruri inhaled slowly, following his instructions and tried to clear her thoughts, rearranging the chaos of her brain into the methodical order she was taught, searching and eliminating all that was unnecessary, honing her focus like an archer and her target on what it was she was trying to do. 

"..."

"Do you see it now?" The man asked quietly.

Ruri opened her eyes, then exhaled, "Queen of hearts."

Silence for a moment, then without a word, the man reached over to the deck of cards sitting at the side of the table between them, searched for the 24th card and then slowly flipped it over, revealing the queen of hearts. 

"Well done, Ruri." He grinned at her.

"Thank you... father..."

~x~

Her hand was steady, her breath still.

The tip of the blade was in the perfect position to slide into the nape of Emi's neck, severing the medulla of her spine and ending her life within seconds.

A merciful death, even by Ruri's accounts.

But Ruri stood frigidly with the knife poised in the chill air, unable to drive the blade in.

'I have to do it.' Ruri told herself. 'I have to do it. Otherwise, Shinji will...'

"Ruri-chan..." Emi suddenly spoke, still facing forward, away from Ruri and her knife.

'Do it now!'

"Yes...?" Ruri said.

"Do you have someone that you like?" Emi asked.

The question appeared to come out of nowhere startling Ruri for a second, but her hands remained steady, the knife still postured at the nape of Emi's neck perfectly.

"Why do you ask...?" Ruri said cautiously.

"Well..." Emi glanced up in the air pensively, still unaware that Ruri was holding a knife to the back of her neck in the empty classroom, "I think that when you like someone or have a crush on somebody, it ends up changing you as well..."

"..."

'All I have to do is push the knife forward just a little bit and...'

"I don't know," Emi laughed weakly, "it's just that ever since that I realised there might actually be someone that I like, I've been feeling differently recently... Like finding myself doing things that I thought I would never do... Or having thoughts that I don't usually have..."

"..."

'She has to die.'

"Maybe that's why you said it doesn't sound like me," Emi said, her cheeks caught onto a light shade of pink, "to be doing something so reckless like making a confession to someone..."

"..."

'She has to die now.'

Ruri braced the knife at the nape of Emi's neck, gathering all of her resolve.

"I mean, you're so beautiful and smart, Ruri-chan, so you probably don't have any trouble at all with these sort of things..." Emi said softly, "But at the end of the day, I'm just me..."

"..."

'Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her.'

Emi took a deep breath and sighed, "I... I want to just say it."

"..."

'KILL HER.'

Emi turned around with a bright blush, "The one that I really like is you, Ruri-cha—"