#I guess I ended up leaning more towards writing Akiko because it's what I know best

[wren-fell]

Stuck in Borderland

Chapter 2: Six of Diamonds Part 1

Warnings: Language, weapons, violence

I split chapter two into two pieces, because I felt like it was getting too long. Part 2 is a WIP! Thanks for reading!

All characters are ocs except for Hatter and Kuzuryu who belong to Haro Aso.

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Sayaka leaned against the wall in the back of the lobby with Madoka, while Hatter stood on a balcony addressing the entirety of the beach with the same bullshit speech about hope.

           “So he does this same speech every night?” Sayaka whispered leaning over to Madoka who nodded.

           “More or less. It’s pretty much the same.”

“And you have to be sorted into groups for the games?”

“Yep. There’s always at least one militant in the groups. He says it’s to keep everyone safe. Gives us better odds if at least one person has a gun, but…” she cast a glance around the room and dropped her voice to a whisper, “I think it’s just to make sure we hand over the card in the end.”

Sayaka nodded. It had been 3 days since she had completed the 3 of diamonds game and been brought to the beach. And every night she had been treated to Hatter’s speech about hope, rallying the members before they went out to their games. But, now it was night three and Sayaka’s own visa was expiring, and that speech was directed at her.

Hatter ended his speech wishing them all luck and a cheer erupted from the lobby, as everyone charged to the front to receive their group assignments. Sayaka quietly pushed forward with Madoka, her visa also at its end. They made it up to the table where one of the beach members handed Madoka a folded piece of paper. Sayaka reached for her own paper when Kuzuryu appeared behind the table, “no need Sayaka you’re coming with my group. We want to test your skills see if you’re fit for an executive position.”

Sayaka stared at him wide-eyed before glancing at Madoka who smiled, “well good luck then. I’ll see you after, stay safe.” She flashed her the four from her card and gave Kuzuryu a nod, “nice to see you Kuzuryu.”

Kuzuryu nodded at her before turning to Sayaka, “we need to get going come along.” He turned sharply heading to the entrance.

Sayaka pouted, but glanced at Madoka with a sigh, “see you later be safe,” before following Kuzuryu. She didn’t want to be an executive, honestly the less time she had to spend around any of the executives the better. She had learned Niragi the man with the piercings was severely unhinged and was way too eager to kill someone should they make a mistake. Hatter gave her the creeps always taking different girls that looked way too young for him up to his room, and then there was Chishiya. He had been watching her since the night she had gotten to the beach. Sayaka always saw the flash of his white hoodie out of the corner of her vision, though he had never actually tried to talk to her, which just made it twice as creepy.

Sayaka was led to the same beat up corvette as the other night, though now she noticed that it had a crude “2” spray painted on the side. I guess that’s what the numbers mean. She sat in the car as it sped off into Tokyo to find a game arena.

“Sayaka.”

“Yes.”

“We will be using this game to test your skills. You excelled in the 3 of Diamonds game, if you do well tonight I can almost guarantee an executive position for you, which does have it’s perks so,” Kuzuryu glanced over his shoulder from the front passenger seat at her, “try and impress me.”

Sayaka frowned, but gave him a curt nod, “do my best.” She had no desire to impress him let alone be an executive. They pulled up to a high school one of the few buildings in the area with its lights on.

Everyone piled out of the car and headed towards the entrance with Sayaka lagging behind to survey the team she had been saddled with. If Kuzuryu wanted her in charge for the game she should know who she had to deal with. Their team of five consisted of Kuzuryu, herself, two militant men each with a handgun sticking out of their swim trunks, and one girl who seemed to take a liking to one of the militants hanging onto him saying how scared she was. Could be better, could be worse I suppose… But, it all depended what type of game this was.

They walked up the steps to the entrance passing through the doorway with the familiar shing of the security grid activating behind them. Sayaka picked up a phone from the table and the screen lit up, “facial recognition in progress, please wait for the game to commence.”

As the timer on the wall counted down Sayaka drew in a deep breath, the waiting was the worst part. The anticipation of finding out what type of game they were playing. She could see the fear starting to form on some of their faces. The girl who had been faking being scared actually started to look horrified, and was clutching tightly to the militant boy who was staring intently at his phone.

DING DONG, “registration is now closed. The game will now commence.” Sayaka stared up at the ceiling where she assumed the invisible voice was coming from.

“Game: Trivia Crush, Difficulty: Six of Diamonds,” Sayaka felt bile rising in her throat as she stared at the card lighting up her phone screen. She hadn’t played a game above difficulty level 4, especially a diamonds game.

“Rules:

Complete the trivia questions correctly to advance to the next room.

Answer a question incorrectly, and there will be consequences.”

“What kind of consequences?” The other beach girl asked, but everyone shushed her in response causing her to shrink into herself.

“There are 10 rooms in total.

Leave the 10th room before the timer stops, and you will have successfully cleared the game.

If you do not leave the final room within the time limit, you will die.

Time limit: 60 minutes,” a door opened on the room to the right of the lobby causing everyone to jump, “please proceed into the room to begin the game.”

Sayaka drew a deep breath before she walked into the room letting it out as she entered, you can do this, you’ve played trivia games before.

Once everyone had piled into the room the door slammed shut and locked with a loud click. Sayaka took this chance to survey the room. It was an old classroom with the desks still placed in neat rows with pencil and paper sitting on each. If it weren’t for the boarded up windows she would say there was nothing suspicious about it. The blackboard at the back of the room flipped causing them all to jump.

“Your time has started.”

“Alright Sayaka,” she turned to Kuzuryu, “this is your executive test, so you are the only one to answer these questions.”

She stared at him wide-eyed, but gave him a curt nod. What else was she going to say? Very slowly she turned her head towards the blackboard. Please don’t be math, pleeeaaaasseeee. Sayaka nearly cried out loud when she read the board.

Written in almost unsettlingly perfect handwriting was the question, “1. Write out the empirical chemical formula for Titin.”

“I know that!” She screamed as she ran full speed to the board fumbling for the chalk that she made fall onto the floor in her hurry.

“You do?” One of the militants asked.

“Yes, I’m a chemist. I memorized this as a joke to impress one of my professors to get an internship” she let out a breathy laugh at how insignificant that piece of her life seemed now, “it worked too.”

As she wrote it on the board the girl from the beach chimed in, “are you sure that’s right? There’s some sort of consequence if it’s not!”

“Shut it Akiko! Let her work!” The militant she had clung to a moment before snapped.

Sayaka paused and glanced to the side as she set the chalk down and took a step back, “yes,” she drew in a deep breath, “I’m sure this is right.”

“This answer is…” The was a long pause as the voice spoke, “correct! Congratulations, please advance to the next room.”

Sayaka let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and raked a hand through her hair, “thank god.”

A door to the right of the blackboard popped open and Kuzuryu walked past her towards it, “nice job, one down nine to go.”

She pouted, “don’t remind me.”

The next three rooms seemed a breeze simple trivia questions about the human body or science that were right up Sayaka’s alley.

They all walked through the fourth door to another classroom, but when Sayaka saw the question that was written on the board her heart sank. “Three resistors of equal resistance are connected in series. Compared to the voltage provided by the battery, voltage across each of the resistors is _______.” She walked up to the board and stared at it for a moment before turning to Kuzuryu, “I don’t know the answer.”

He nodded, “well you have to figure it out. This is your executive test.”

“Yea, but I don’t know anything about electrical work.”

“You can figure it out.”

Now Sayaka was starting to get mad, “what word do you not understand. I. Don’t. Know. The. Answer.”

“If you cannot solve the question on your own then we all die,” Kuzuryu said calmly.

Sayaka drew in a sharp breath sucking in her lower lip, “fine,” she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, “guess we’ll die then.”

The militant who had snapped at Akiko stomped up to her pointing the gun in her face, “solve the fucking question!”

“I can’t.”

“Do it or I’ll shoot you!” he screamed pushing the gun in her face.

Sayaka turned her chin up at him, “go ahead. You’ll die whether I answer it or not.”

“You have to answer it Sayaka,” Kuzuryu said trying to remain calm, but she could see the panic starting to build in his eyes.

“I can’t.”

“You’re not even trying!” The militant snapped.

“What do you want me to do teach myself electrical engineering in the next 40 minutes?”

“There are now 30 minutes remaining.”

“The next 30 minutes, excuse me,” Sayaka corrected leaning back against the wall.

“So we’re just supposed to die!?” The militant snapped.

“Guess so,” Sayaka shrugged.

“I can solve it.”

All of their heads snapped around to Akiko who was taking a hesitant step forward.

“We only have a one chance Akiko, shut up and stay back,” the militant snapped.

“Shut up!” Sayaka snapped and took a step towards Akiko, “how do you know you can solve it?”

“I was an electrical engineering student. I used to work with circuits all the time,” she said quietly.

There was a long pause as they all started at her, “I think she should do it,” Sayaka said.

Kuzuryu snapped his head around to look at her, “no this is your test.”

“Fuck the test Kuzuryu! Do you want to die?!” Sayaka flailed her arms.

He hesitated looking from Sayaka to the board to the phone in his hand where the timer continued to tick down, “fine.”

“Akiko it’s all you,” Sayaka said quietly holding the chalk out to her. Akiko drew in a deep breath and shakily took the chalk from Sayaka before walking up to the board. She drew a crude rectangular diagram with the same waves on 3 sides and an open space on the other.

“If this is what the resistors would look like, then the voltage would be…” she hesitated.

“Just answer it Akiko!” The militant shouted.

“Yelling at her isn’t helping!” Sayaka rounded on him.

“The same!” Akiko scribbled it on the board and closed her eyes, “the voltage would be the same!”

There was a deafening silence within the room before there was another chime, “Congratulations please advance to the next room!”

“Thank god! Great job Akiko!” Sayaka smiled patting her shoulder as they all clambered into the next room, room number 5.“What is the largest organ in the human body?”

“At least it’s another easy one…” Sayaka mumbled and headed towards the board, but Akiko’s militant was already scribbling on it.

“Psh, yea even I know this one!” He turned around crossing his arms, “it’s the stomach.”

Sayaka stared at him in horror, but when she opened her mouth to say something there was a loud buzzer sound. They all looked up at the ceiling as the silence came over them again, “That answer… is INCORRECT.”

“How is that not the answer!?” The militant screamed turning back to the board.

“Well what’s the consequence?” Akiko asked glancing at Sayaka who shook her head.

“I don’t know, but knowing the game makers it’s deadly,” she whispered. There was a loud thud and then the sound of screeching metal, and they had their answer as the ceiling started slowly dropping and spikes lowered from circular holes.

“Holy shit, change the answer! It’s skin! The largest organ is skin!” Sayaka screamed at the militant.

“You idiot skin isn’t even an organ!” He snapped back.

“Change the answer Kaoru!” The other militant yelled.

“That’s not the fucking answer Daichi!” Kaoru screeched back.

Sayaka honestly didn’t know what to say and just stared at him until Kuzuryu made a dive for the board. He erased the stomach and crudely scribbled “skin” down. They all paused waiting for the voice, but the ceiling kept lowering.

“That answer is…” The voice paused teasing them, “Correct! Please proceed to the next room.” The door next to the board popped open and they all made a mad dash for it.

Kaoru shoved Akiko out of the way knocking her down as he scrambled for the door. Sayaka helped Akiko to her feet and held her arms as they both slipped through the door and it closed behind them with a thud. They all stood breathing heavily until the voice chimed in, “there are 20 minutes remaining.”

“There are five rooms left that means 4 minutes per room,” Kuzuryu said turning to the board and they all froze. Sitting on the board was a long complicated calculus problem with the simple words, “solve this equation,” written above it.

“Oh we’re so fucked,” Sayaka breathed.