The show wanted to create a villain. Someone who cares more about the money than their friendships. If they got what they wanted, it would create an irreversible fracture in our group.

  I knew that most of us would be fine. The two problems were Nobu and Yaeko. Nobu felt betrayed, so he could vote against us out of spite. Yaeko was in pain, so she might not see things clearly.

  The first step was critical.

  “The pers-”

  “Mei, are you ok?” I turned around to look at her. Osamu noticed her blank stare and immediately tried to comfort her.

  This wasn’t good.

  I couldn’t speak over her without looking cold, and I had no other way of interrupting her.

  “Yeah… sorry…” Mei looked down. “My point total… is 4500.” She paused. “I’m the one who’ll be eliminated.”

  I took a deep breath as I started planning.

  I was trying to tell the group not to reveal who had the least points. It would be easier to protect someone anonymous, since there’d be less spite or hate towards them.

  There was one problem though.

  Why did it have to be Mei of all people?

  Yori leaned forward quickly and opened his mouth.

  If he speaks, we lose.

  I reflexively grabbed his wrist, tightly. I saw the pain shoot through him. He looked at my hand, then at my face. I needed him to stay quiet. I stared into his eyes as intensely as I could, hoping that he’d get the message.

  Nobu and Yaeko watched as Osamu and Choko tried to comfort Mei. While that happened, I started strategising with Yori.

  I whispered, making sure no one could hear us.

  “Calm down. If you’d volunteered to sacrifice yourself, we would’ve lost.” I let go of my grip as I said that.

  “What?” I gestured for him to keep his voice down. “What?” He repeated in a whisper. “Why?”

  “Mei was the one that accused Nobu of lying. Sure, her points were logical, but that doesn’t matter. Nobu’s personality is built on trust. It doesn’t matter if the accusation is logical, any accusation stating that he’s lying would break him. Look at him.” As I said that, Yori looked up. I didn’t have the time to explain all this.

  “You’ve noticed it too. He hasn’t said a single word since all of that happened. He’s devastated.” I needed to be quick. Concise. “In his mind, that’s all Mei’s fault.” Time to wrap up my point. “There’s a very high chance that even if you volunteered willingly, he’d vote against it out of spite.” Yori nodded his head, immediately understanding my point.

  “So Mei’s done?” I looked at him. My mind raced with ideas. I had one, but I knew he wouldn’t like it.

  “No. You can save her.” A look of confusion appeared on his face.

  “Me? Why can’t you?” He took another look at Nobu, but he hadn’t changed from his trance like state.

  “Because Nobu trusts you the most out of all of us.”

  “What? That’s not true-”

  “We don’t have time for this meaningless argument.” We were wasting time but I kept my composure. “Yes, it is true. I’ve known it for a while. He voted for you to have the right to transfer 3000 of our points, right? Explain that if it isn’t true.” He took a few seconds before accepting I was right.

  “Ok. Fine. What do you need me to do?” I quickly told him my plan.

  “Are you serious?” I looked at him blankly.

  “We don’t have a choice. There’s no other option.” I watched the timer get closer to zero. It was currently at 4:13

  “No, I’m not doing it.”

  “Fine. It’s your choice. You better not regret acting when you had the chance.”

  “You know I love Mei, we both do- but…” He sighed. “This is too much…”

  “You think I’m only talking about Mei?” He turned back towards me.

  That got his attention.

  “The entire group’s at risk. If Nobu lets his spite get the better of him, he’ll only be isolated even further. He won’t ever be redeemed. That’s not it. The rest of our friendships will start fracturing too.

  You are the only one that can stop that from happening.”

  I looked him dead in the eyes as we were running out of time.

  “Fine. 90% isn’t enough though. This better work. I’m not dirtying my hands for no reason.” I looked at him blankly. I wasn’t going to lie to him and guarantee his success.

  “If you execute it well, it’ll work. Now go, we don’t have time.” He stood up, walking away from me and towards Nobu. I watched as the timer hit four minutes.

  I hated not being able to do this myself, but I’m the one that advocated for Nobu to win that vote. In his state, he’ll blame me just as much as he’s blaming Mei.

  I hated relying on Yori.

  I hated making him do this.

  But it was our only choice. It was the only path that worked. The rest was in his hands.

  Everyone watched as Yori walked up to Nobu and started speaking.

  “Nobu, ignore everyone else for a second. Were you telling the truth about Yaeko’s points?” Nobu looked at him in silence for a second.

  "Yes... of course I was." Nobu mumbled, dejected. He kept his head down. That's exactly the vibe I was hoping for. Yori shouldn’t have any trouble with this.

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  "None of us will be able to believe you. However, there is still a way for you to redeem yourself. A way for you to get out of this sinking despair." Yori nailed it. His voice and pacing were exactly what we needed, even his detached tone followed by his emotive emphasis. The sentences were simple, but I told Yori that he had to be perfect.

  I started off by getting Yori to indirectly reinforce Nobu’s spiraling - I needed Nobu to sink deeper and deeper. Then, the rapid contrast was key. We were giving him hope. A light for him to reach out for.

  The words “however” and “still” were used to continuously highlight how hopeless he was. But despite that, Yori was offering a miracle solution.

  So what exactly was this miracle solution?

  Redemption.

  This was the most important word.

  Nobu didn’t need logic - he needed a lifeline. We pulled him deeper into his spiral, then gave him just enough hope to claw toward.

  But what exactly was redemption for Nobu?

  It’s tied into his weakness. He wants both to trust everyone, and to be trusted by everyone. Redemption wasn’t about forgiveness or an apology. It was about proving to the group - and to himself - that he was still worth trusting. I built this entire plan around that. That probably would have been enough, but with Mei’s elimination on the line, I couldn’t hold any punches.

  I told Yori that once he gave Nobu a shred of hope, he would need to emphasise that it’s just a shred. I told him to once again reinforce Nobu’s feelings of despair.

  Nobu’s eyes lit up. He looked up, and for the first time in a while, he looked Yori in the eyes.

  "What? For real? You’re being serious?" This was the first time he'd had hope since he accused Yaeko. Using his desire to be trusted felt cheap and it was painful, but it was our only winning move. Everyone has a weakness, and this was his. I was willing to exploit it to save Mei, regardless of how it made me feel.

  I could only wonder how Yori felt. It doesn’t bother me anymore, but I still remember how much it hurt the first time I did something like this.

  I could only hope that Yori didn’t take it even worse than I did.

  “Sacrifice yourself."

  Yori nailed it. His emotional argument followed by the cold, detached words.

  Sacrifice yourself.

  The words echoed in everyone's heads. I looked around. Yaeko coldly smiled, likely seeing this as retribution. Osamu didn’t show any signs of malice. He seemed surprised, but a little bit pitiful. His eyes were fixed onto Nobu’s, but he didn’t show any signs of wanting to get involved.

  Hibiki and Choko had both been watching this unfold attentively, but when Yori said this, I saw Hibiki’s face tighten up. She obviously didn’t like the idea of Nobu having to sacrifice himself, but someone had to do it or we’d lose Mei.

  Choko’s reaction was different… it seemed like cold indifference. It seemed that she understood the situation. If someone didn’t step in, we would lose Mei. She was fine with someone sacrificing themselves, but she hadn’t offered to sacrifice herself before Yori made his move. Was this self preservation, or something different?

  As for Mei… she couldn’t even look at Nobu or Yori. She had her hands in her face. I’m sure she wanted to speak out. I anticipated this, and I took just a few seconds to make her promise not to say anything, no matter how badly she wanted to. I didn’t want to use our friendship to force her into an uncomfortable position, but I would do it 1000 more times if it was to help her. She only had to endure it for another three and a half minutes.

  Yori’s sudden detachment after offering Nobu hope meant that Nobu would be inclined to listen to Yori’s logical argument. This was going perfectly so far, but this was only the set up. The most important part was about to come. I could only have faith and confidence that Yori would be able to pull through.

  He continued.

  "You want everyone to trust you again, but you can't ever prove that you were telling the truth about Yaeko's points.” He paused. I’m not sure what went through his head, but it was the right choice. I didn’t explicitly tell him to pause here - there wasn’t enough time. The fact that he improvised this was critical.

  This pause let his words sink in. He wasn’t just telling Nobu a cold truth. He was forcing Nobu to accept it. This would force him to listen to Yori’s logic. I don’t know if he was calculating all of this the way that I do, or if he was simply acting off of pure intuition, but it didn’t matter. He kept going.

  “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you lied or told the truth. All you want is to be trusted, yes?” He paused again, waiting for Nobu’s response. Yori executed the plan perfectly. He had essentially trapped Nobu. He’s forced Nobu to confront his spiraling thoughts and inner feelings. Of course, it was obvious to anyone else that this is what Nobu wanted. However, from his perspective, feelings of hatred might overpower those of betrayal.

  That’s why we had to force him even deeper and then offer him a way out. We needed him to get hooked onto the idea of redemption. That way, he would be forced to listen to logical arguments rather than ignoring them based on pure hatred and spite.

  Nobu looked away from Yori.

  This wasn’t good, and I eagerly watched Yori.

  I told Yori to wait for Nobu’s response before continuing, but Nobu’s body language made it obvious that he didn’t need to wait. I needed Yori to press him, to improvise and keep going. I had to have faith that he could intuit his way through this.

  “There's only way for people to trust you again when they think you've lied. You need to redeem yourself.”

  I smiled as Yori came through. He realised that he had momentum, and he realised that he couldn’t afford to let it slip. We got immediate confirmation of this when Nobu looked up at Yori. Nobu’s teary eyes made Yori hesitate, but it also gave him the confidence boost he needed to finish the job. So far, he’d been perfect, but he didn’t know that. He had no feedback.

  Now that he knew his words were working, he’d be able to replicate this performance, both to finish the job now, but in future situations as well. I didn’t realise Yori had this much potential… perhaps that’s why he was able to recognise the surface of my abilities despite my efforts to hide them. I watched as Yori steeled his resolve. I thought this might happen, so I made sure to tell him that the entire group needed this.

  “Sacrifice yourself and save your friend from being eliminated." He paused. “That is your only chance of redemption.” I looked at the clock. three minutes left. Yori held Nobu’s hand and knelt down so they were at eye level.

  I told him he’d need to initiate physical contact after the final line - something simple to ground Nobu emotionally. By kneeling down, he would be symbolically showing himself as Nobu’s equal. He might not have seen the symbolism, but regardless, this act of kindness would comfort him. If he was uncertain about what he wanted to do, this would be the final nail in the coffin.

  Nobu’s fists unclenched as a smile crept upon his face. “Ok. I’ll do it. I’ll sacrifice my points to save Mei.” He hugged Yori, and Yori hugged him back. As much as I wanted to let the moment last, I couldn’t. We’d only completed half the job.

  Mei wasn’t safe yet.

  We had just under three minutes to convince the rest of the group - and fast. Yori had done well, much better than I expected. I was ready to work with just two minutes. This extra one could make the difference.

  I was hesitant to trust anyone with something this important. But Yori didn’t let me down.

  You didn’t let me down.

  Maybe I don’t have to win alone.

  I used Yori to manipulate Nobu because I knew Nobu wouldn’t listen to me. But now, we had to convince the rest of the group. There was no reason for me to stay quiet anymore.

  Two minutes ago, the door had slammed shut on Mei’s survival.

  Yori had pried it open.

  Now, it was time for me to do what I do best.

  I was going to kick it down.