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

Question

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?

Answer 1

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