The chapter opens with a description of the history club, which consists of a group of students who study ancient Japanese history. The students are divided into five classes and play a game of karuta , which is a Japanese board game similar to chess. In this game, the students play against one another and each player has to admit that he or she is tied with another player in order to advance to the next round of play. The first player wins the game and the second player loses. The third player wins and the fourth player wins.