Is "爿" a 略字--if so, how is it pronounced/written normally?


If not. . .part of how I help myself learn is to translate things that
interest me--comics and art and song lyrics now and then. While reading, I ran
into this dialogue, starting with "爿に"--and I've been stuck for a while.

I know that some kanji are shortened into ryakuji when handwritten, but I
can't seem to find this anywhere. . .aside from that it's a radical and it can
be shortened in some kanji to 丬 to make them quicker to write. If not for that
the text is hand-written, I'd think of it as maybe being a typo.

If this isn't the abbreviated form of a kanji or something similar, is there a
way this should be read? Am I misreading the kanji itself?

![handwritten text that, to my understanding, says
「爿に多く食べたわが勝ちってゲームらしいんだけど」](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4yVkX.png)




Sure looks like `先に` to me. You can see the two horizontal lines for the
character in your image both come out the other side of the vertical line they
cross, unlike `爿`, which I had never seen before your question. The bottom
right vertical line also clearly curves out to the right.

The sentence also makes sense this way:

> 先に多く食べた方が勝ちってゲームらしいんだけど
>
> (It is) apparently a game where the first person to eat a bunch/the most
> wins




Sure looks like `先に` to me. You can see the two horizontal lines for the
character in your image both come out the other side of the vertical line they
cross, unlike `爿`, which I had never seen before your question. The bottom
right vertical line also clearly curves out to the right.

The sentence also makes sense this way:

> 先に多く食べた方が勝ちってゲームらしいんだけど
>
> (It is) apparently a game where the first person to eat a bunch/the most
> wins

