“If you remember, at the start of the game, I reached for my glass of water. I’m sure you noticed how much my hand was shaking.” I sat back down in my chair and acted out my actions. “I also made a show of agonising over how many points I should wager. I’m sure you saw that as a sign of weakness - exactly what I wanted.” I heard him suck in some air as I showed him how perfectly I read him, but that wasn’t it.

  “I wanted you to think I was nervous, knowing that I could use this to corner you once I began attacking. If you had bet big in the first match, I would have defended with the intent to win. But if you bet small, then this would be the beginning of a vicious trap I’d set for you-”

  “Trap?” Keiko looked at Yuto with a sense of pity as he questioned my strategy. Suddenly, her face lit up as she took over the explanation.

  “He acted meek and let you win the first match. Then, he suddenly became confident and dominated the second match while attacking. He did it to mentally corner you. You had no idea why the atmosphere had changed so much. That’s why it was so important he challenged your superiority complex.” I gently chuckled as I realised what was happening. She was interrupting so that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to break Yuto.

  She was doing it to protect him.

  But she was so caught up in her emotions, that she didn’t realise it was doing the exact opposite.

  It just reminded him that he was being outsmarted by both of us.

  “What…?” Yuto sat down and rested his chin on his hand, gently staring into the space between Keiko and I. I quickly took back control and continued my explanation so he’d only have to focus his attention on me.

  “I wanted to put you in a situation where the nervous kid in front of you turned into a mind reader who constantly pressured you and read all your decisions. I gambled that once I had done this, you would double down on your overconfidence. Your arrogance. Your weakness. This all worked because of the act that I’d put on.” I masked my sense of uneasiness as I watched him continuously stare into space. I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t.

  I needed to keep going.

  “I wasn’t just pretending to be nervous. I wanted to make Yuto underestimate me. It wasn’t just about acting scared - it was about pushing him into a false sense of security. I knew it would be easy for him to think he had the upper hand. And once that happened, he’d play right into my hands.” Keiko’s lips parted and her eyes widened as she saw through that small detail and understood my true abilities for the first time, but I didn’t let that stop me.

  “Once I had accomplished this, I was no longer just being a mind reader. That wouldn’t be enough to win. I was the one pulling the strings, and his ego was simply a thread for me to pull at. A weakness to manipulate. A means to an end. It was just a matter of time until his ego betrayed him.”

  It was a subtle technique which is why I was surprised Keiko noticed, but I’d transitioned from addressing Yuto directly to addressing him in the third person. I wanted him to feel like I no longer cared about talking to him because he was beneath me, and that I was just speaking to Keiko, an equal. I needed him to feel anger, despair, or hopelessness. As soon as I saw his fists clenched tighter, I knew this small but simple trick had served its purpose. This was going well. I needed to keep going.

  “You would bid all your money in the third round in the hopes of being the attacker to crush me in return. Your ego wouldn’t allow any other situation. That being said, once you left yourself with 2000 points for the third round, it didn’t matter what you wanted to do - you’d be forced to bid the rest of your points.”

  “You said all of that was a gamble… then what was the point? Why go through all that effort if the game would come down to luck anyway.” He was much quieter, but he was still fighting with all of his logic.

  “I didn’t just let the game come down to luck. I said that would happen if all I did was passively read you. No, I didn’t stop there.” I hesitated for a second before I continued my explanation, trying to look him in the eyes. Luckily, his eyes weren’t looking back at mine. That would’ve made saying this next part much harder. “I actively analysed your weakness, and manipulated you so your thought processes would be predictable.”

  I let the silence linger. It was important that I let Yuto dwell on those words. I turned around to look at Keiko who simply stared at me with an expressionless face. The only trace of emotion I could detect from her was the disgust conveyed by her prolonged stare. I smiled one last time at her to tell her it’s ok, but she didn’t react to that either. I decided to look back at Yuto.

  “To continue what I was saying, even if you didn’t make the mistake of leaving yourself with just 2000 points, it wouldn’t have mattered. I would force out the rest of your points as long as I had more points than you entering the third bid. Winning the bid didn’t actually matter to me. What mattered was getting you to bet everything.” I took a sharp breath in before continuing.

  “To do this, I maximised the probability that I entered the third round with more points than you, while ensuring I was the attacker in the second round. Otherwise, you could’ve just bid one point greater than however many points I had left.” Yuto stayed silent. Earlier, he was at least taking part in conversation. That’s how I knew I was getting to him.

  “To summarise, I let you win the first game because I knew it would let me take your 7,500 remaining points-”

  “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” Yuto paused, double checking his logic. “If you just wanted to make me bid as many points as possible, why did you need to bid higher than me in the second round? I understand that you wanted to crush me by attacking me - you’d make me desperate to win the attacking role for the third round.” Keiko nodded along, supporting his logic.

  “But if you were correct about me bidding 5500 points, then as you said, I’d be forced to bid my leftover points anyway. You could’ve bid 2000 points to minimise your risk in case you lost.” I heard Keiko let out a soft sigh of pity as she realised Yuto was one step behind. This game was never about certainties. It’s been about maximising the probability of good outcomes.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “It’s simple. I wasn’t 100% sure you’d bid 5500. I did everything I could to maximise those chances, but they were never 100%. I needed to set up a contingency plan in case I was wrong.” I glanced at Keiko before turning back at Yuto. “I made sure my bid was higher than yours. That way, if you’d bid a small number of points and lost as the defender, you’d be more inclined to use all your points to win the attacker role for the last round again.”

  I heard Keiko take a step towards me, but she stopped herself. We stayed in silence for about ten seconds until someone spoke up.

  “That’s… not human…” Yuto switched from denial to disbelief. He’d lowered his head so he was staring at the table. He didn’t want to acknowledge his defeat, so he refused to look at us.

  The conditions were met.

  This is what the entire conversation had been leading up to.

  “Yuto, could you please raise your head?”

  It was a simple question, but Keiko intervened. “What are you planning on doing?” She sounded worried, so I thought I should respond.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt him. I’d appreciate it if you refrained from speaking for the rest of this conversation.” I turned and locked my gaze into her eyes as I said this. She was so shocked at my request that she froze, and I continued without an argument.

  “Yuto. I won’t ask again. Raise your head.” Kindness hadn’t worked. It was time to be harsh.

  It worked.

  This was going to be the hardest thing I’d done all day.

  Even harder than the game.

  Harder than reading or manipulating him.

  Way harder.

  I thought about the rest of my friends, having fun in our karaoke room. I’d never be able to do this in front of them. That’s the reason why I hadn’t dealt with Yaeko yet. Being in an environment where they couldn’t see me was so liberating. I could help people without any self imposed restrictions.

  “Just how pathetic do you feel right now? Your downfall from having a superiority complex with a 1-0 lead to this pathetic excuse in front of me. It almost makes me sick. I want to savour every last second of it. So tell me. Just how deep is the well of despair I’ve been building inside you-”

  “That’s enough, stop right no-” Keiko’s voice was shaking with pure unbridled anger. She was understandably disgusted with what I just said. I would be too if I didn’t understand what was going on either.

  “Keiko, don’t interrupt. You may continue”. The voice that spoke through the speaker earlier came back. If they came back to allow this right now, I assumed that they’d watched the entire game and listened to this entire conversation. Keiko let out a little grunt, obviously upset with the order, but she complied.

  Yuto didn’t say anything. He just looked at me apathetically. I respected how he stayed so composed, and how he held eye contact despite everything I said about his ego, but this was evidently enough to break him. As difficult as it was, it was necessary for what I wanted to accomplish. As it stood right now, there was only one thing I could say where Yuto would want to continue this conversation.

  “Yuto. Why do you think I went through the effort of explaining all of that to you? The game’s already over so I gain absolutely nothing from telling you.”

  Ego.

  Facade.

  A weakness to manipulate.

  A means to an end.

  These powerful, evocative words that I had meticulously chosen. I have absolute confidence that they’ve been resonating in his head. I didn’t choose them for no reason. I needed to break him down to rock bottom. When people reach this low of a state, they become desperate for a way back up. The person that put them in this state holds an immense amount of power over them. If they offer them a way out, they would listen to anything that person told them. That’s what I wanted to accomplish from the start of my explanation.

  “How am I supposed to know?” He looked at me for a brief second with a monotone voice before looking away.

  “I know I sound cruel, cold, vindictive, even. But I promise you there’s a good reason for it. I see a lot of potential in you. I didn’t say all that to destroy you.

  I said it all so you could be rebuilt.”

  I paused for a split second. Not long enough for anyone to interrupt, but long enough to let Yuto process what I said.

  “You’re clearly a smart person. You had a good strategy for your given information. You made good choices. You just lacked experience. When you combine that with your massive ego, if you run into someone like me, they’ll beat you easily. You had a massive ego. That was your weakness. But it doesn’t have to be anymore.” I wanted to turn around and see Keiko’s reaction, but that wasn’t an option. As long as Yuto’s eyes were fixed on mine, I wouldn’t be able to look away from his. It simply wasn’t a choice.

  “You wouldn’t be this distraught unless you were a smart and capable person. If you weren’t, these words wouldn’t cut anywhere near as deep. Use this as a learning experience. I know that you know you aren’t some genius after what went on today. Don’t be afraid of that. Embrace it. See competing with your rivals as a challenge, not a foregone conclusion. Even if you think you're vastly superior - don't just try to win, try finding the best moves. Learn to weaponise your ingenuity and intelligence.” Hearing these words, I saw a flicker of life spread across his eyes. This was working, but I had to finish this off.

  “The reason I was able to beat you today was because I had more experience than you and simply because I have a good understanding of the human psyche. There aren’t many people who have the talent that I do. You’ll never be able to profile and manipulate people like I do, but who cares? In terms of pure strategy, you've shown a lot of promise.

  I reached out my hand to help him out of his chair. It was a gesture of good will, a peace offering, even. This was the moment of truth. If he took my hand and stood up, if he listened to my words earnestly, I see no reason why he couldn’t evolve. If, however, he stares at my hand and refuses to reach out for it, then he’ll remain the broken man that I created.

  Please take my hand.

  I waited a few seconds. I sighed. Had I pushed him too far? Did I expect too much from him? Did I make a mistake? The prospect of guilt started making me feel uneasy. Just as I was about to pull my hand away, I felt the warmth of his hand. I pulled him up, and he watched me intensely. Neither of us said a word, and Keiko started walking towards us. She took a breath before she started speaking.

  “That concludes the game. Yuto, please follow me.” She turned to me and continued. “Please could you wait here. I’ll come back to collect you in a few minutes.” Keiko’s voice stabilised, and her expression softened just a bit. I could tell that she looked at me differently now. At this moment, there wasn’t any curiosity behind her gaze. Nor was there any anger. There was softness. Her impression of me was changing. She didn’t know whether to be afraid, impressed… or something else entirely. Yuto and I shared one last exchange, and we wished each other luck.

  “I hope that I get to see the new and improved Yuto soon.”

  “You can count on it.” It wasn’t an arrogant declaration.

  It was a promise born from hope.

  The hope that I’d given him.

  Those were my last thoughts as I watched Keiko and Yuto walk through the door.