Dead Man's Gambit

**Dead Man's Gambit** is the name of Masanori Nishimuraya's execution, as featured in Cornucopia of Hope.

## Sequence

*Excerpt taken from Chapter 11 of Cornucopia of Hope*

No one has a chance to speak, to reassure Masanori in the concept of an afterlife, or to tell him that we’ll do our best to watch out for his family, before a metal claw closes around his throat and drags him out of the room.

The image on the TV changes.

Dead Man’s Gambit

Masanori sits on a raft on a false ocean. It looks like special affects someone might use for a play; shiny cerulean cloth, glinting under the stage lights. The raft is taken up primarily by a garish gold slot machine, which Masanori seems to grimace at. He looks down at the cloth and grimaces at that, too.

Something seems to be moving in the water beneath the raft, but I can’t quite make out what it is. It bumps the raft, jostling Masanori so badly that he has to cling to the machine for stability. He bumps the lever, and the images on the machine begin to spin.

Rolling Pin! Rolling Pin! Pinky finger?

The machine hums, and a shark fin appears in the water. It begins circling the boat, and Masanori watches its motions carefully. It looks to be made of metal or plastic, like a toy you might put in an inflatable pool for kids. I can see a seam on the fin. Eventually, the shark bites into the raft, ripping open the plastic, and the boat begins to sink into the cloth-water.

Frantically, Masanori begins pulling the lever on the slot machine again and again. Maybe getting the correct combination could lead to his salvation.

Trophy! Trophy! Ripped Page?

Another shark appears. This one has bolts on its fin.

Tombstone! Tombstone! Knife?

Another shark.

Sewing machine! Sewing machine! Cash?

Shark.

Cash! Cash! Blank?

Shark!

His raft is nearly entirely under the water now. He’s desperately pulling at that lever, trying to stay away from the sharks.

Cash! Cash! Cash!

The jackpot!

Hundreds of photographs fly out of the machine, some landing in what’s left of the raft, others landing on the water, landing in the shark’s mouths as they rip them apart and continue circling. Pictures of a young woman, heavily pregnant and laughing at the camera. Pictures of a little girl with pigtails, proudly showing off a bug she’d found. Pictures of a young man, looking lovingly at his wife.

He catches one and holds it. It’s a picture of the young man from the previous pictures, holding a little boy--maybe 5 years old--on his shoulders. Both of them look happy.

Masanori deflates. He looks at the camera, and in his eyes remains only sadness. All of the fight, the aggression, the defensiveness, is gone. Just sorrow.

A huge shark looms behind him, its jaws open wide, its eyes like tiny red LED bulbs. Masanori closes his eyes. The shark’s mouth closes, and Masanori and the raft and the slot machine are all gone. For a moment, all we see is the shine of sharp metal teeth.

Crunch.

Whatever I had hoped for, it wasn’t this. Legs and a waist remain in the rapidly sinking raft, blood staining the ever-shifting pieces of fabric that make up the ocean. For a moment, that’s all there is. Silence and his legs.

The other sharks leap from the water, as gracefully as dolphins, to try to get a piece of whatever’s left. It is violent. They bite at each other, at the legs, at the raft, at the water itself, before all that’s left of Masanori is little bits and pieces of fabric and flesh, left to float once each shark has had its fill.

There is another moment of peace as all the sharks duck back under the water. I find that I’m looking at a pastoral ocean view, with shifting waves stained red by the light of the setting sun. Or...perhaps stained with something else as well.

A single shark fin circles peacefully.

Masanori Nishimuraya, the Super High School Level Fashion Designer, is dead.