Chương 263: Chapter : 263

"I am absolutely not cheating," Ken said.

"I am just naturally gifted at collecting matching pieces of paper. It is a blessing and a curse." Naomi's green eyes narrowed. She looked at Risa's tiny pile. She looked at Ken's massive pile. She looked at the smug, lazy grin on his face. Something stirred inside her. Something deep and primal and deeply, fundamentally competitive.

"Move over," Naomi said, dropping to the floor beside Risa.

"I am playing."

"Naomi!" Risa said, her eyes lighting up.

"Help me! He keeps winning!"

"Not for long," Naomi said, cracking her neck from side to side. She picked up Risa's cards, fanned them out with practiced precision, and studied them with the intensity of a general planning a military campaign. Ken raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure about this? I would hate to embarrass you in front of the pink one."

"You could not embarrass me if you tried, Ken Eliot," Naomi said, her green eyes blazing with competitive fire.

"Deal the cards." The game restarted with Naomi and Risa on one team and Ken on the other. The casual, relaxed atmosphere evaporated instantly, replaced by the fierce, crackling tension of a high-stakes tactical war. Naomi played the way she fought. Fast, aggressive, and utterly relentless. She slammed cards onto the floor with the force of someone delivering a killing blow. She demanded cards from Ken with the authoritative bark of a vanguard leader issuing a battlefield command.

Her green eyes tracked every card that passed between them, cataloging and analyzing with the precision of a war tactician. Ken, to his credit, did not seem the least bit intimidated. He lounged on the floor with his legs stretched out, his cards held loosely in one hand, his dark eyes half-closed with boredom. He still won. Every single round. With that same lazy, infuriating grin.

"Are you SERIOUS right now?" Naomi shouted, slamming her fist on the floor as Ken collected yet another matching set.

"How do you keep doing that?"

"It is a mystery," Ken said, shrugging.

"Even to me."

"It is not a mystery! You are cheating! I just cannot figure out how!"

"Perhaps I am just better at this than you," Ken suggested, examining his cards with exaggerated interest.

"Have you considered that possibility?" Naomi's face turned red. Not the cute, flustered kind of red that Laxmi teased her about. The furious, competitive, I-will-destroy-you-in-card-games kind of red. She turned to Risa with wild, determined eyes.

"New strategy. We trap him. I will force him to trade his high cards, and you sweep in and collect the matches. Flanking maneuver. Textbook tactic." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Risa nodded solemnly.

"Understood." They executed the plan with military precision. Naomi launched a barrage of aggressive card requests, trying to strip Ken of his best cards. Risa followed up with carefully timed requests of her own, attempting to snatch the matches while Ken was distracted. It almost worked. Almost. Ken casually dodged every trap they set, somehow always having the one card they did not want him to have, never having the one card they were trying to take. It was like trying to punch smoke.

The front door opened, and Laxmi stepped into the living room. She had been outside, practicing her fire forms in the training yard, and her orange hair was slightly damp with sweat. She stopped in the doorway, taking in the scene. Naomi and Risa on one side, hunched over their cards with the intensity of soldiers defending a fortress. Ken on the other, lounging like a king holding court. Luna asleep on the couch, completely oblivious to the war raging three feet away from her.

"What is happening?" Laxmi asked cautiously.

"Ken is winning at cards and we hate him!" Naomi shouted without looking up. Laxmi considered this for approximately two seconds. Then she sat down next to Ken.

"I will play on his team."

"What?" Naomi's head snapped up.

"Traitor!"

"You said he is winning," Laxmi said calmly, picking up the extra cards.

"I prefer winning. It is more fun that way." She cracked her knuckles and leaned forward with a competitive grin. Flames flickered briefly between her fingers as she sorted her cards, and she did not seem to care that the edges of a few cards were starting to curl from the heat. Ken noticed. Of course he noticed. He noticed everything. But he just grinned lazily and dealt the cards. The game escalated. Laxmi appeared from the kitchen, drawn by the sound of Naomi's shouting.

She took one look at the card battlefield and immediately chose a side. Not based on strategy. Not based on loyalty. Based purely on whoever was losing, because Laxmi loved a good fight and the underdog always provided the best fireworks.

"Team Naomi!" Laxmi declared, dropping to the floor.

"Let us burn this lazy boy to the ground!"

"Literally or figuratively?" Risa asked nervously.

"Yes," Laxmi said, her fists already sparking with tiny flames of excitement. The living room had become a war zone. Cards flew across the floor. Voices rose. Accusations were hurled. Naomi threatened to flip the entire card deck. Laxmi threatened to set the cards on fire. Risa threatened to cry. Zinia threatened to write a very disapproving report about all of them. In formal academic language." Ken, somehow, was still winning.

He sat in the middle of the chaos like the eye of a hurricane, his lazy grin untouched, his pile of matched cards growing steadily. Every time someone accused him of cheating, he simply held up his hands and said, "Prove it." Nobody could prove it. Because Ken was not cheating in any way that anyone could detect. The truth was simpler and far more annoying than cheating. Ken was just really, really good at reading people. He had spent his entire life watching. Watching how people held their cards.

Watching where their eyes went when they were bluffing. Watching the tiny, unconscious movements that betrayed what they were thinking. It was the same skill that made him so frustratingly impossible to defeat in any situation that required observation and adaptation. But he would never admit that. He would just grin and shrug and ask for another handful of chips.

"That is it!" Naomi roared, standing up and slamming both hands on the floor.

"Next round, I am playing alone. No teams. No strategies. Just me versus you, Ken. To the bitter end."

"I admire your spirit," Ken said, shuffling the deck with one hand.

"I also admire your inevitable defeat. Both are beautiful in their own way."

"I will END you, Ken Eliot!"

"End me in what? Cards? Arm wrestling? A staring contest? Because I have to warn you, I am exceptional at staring at nothing for extended periods of time." Naomi lunged across the card battlefield. Ken scrambled backward with a yelp, his cards scattering across the floor. Risa grabbed Naomi's left arm. Laxmi grabbed her right arm, her flames flickering with pure, delighted chaos. And then the doors burst open.