#aib king of diamonds

[saby-chan]

I just love the weird inconsistencies between the manga and the show, makes for the funniest discoveries sometimes.:))) Like this one, if I remember correctly, in the show there was a big deal about how Kuzuryu was touched by Arisu’s actions during the Witch Hunt, meanwhile in the manga, my dude be out and about after like what, 2-3 chapters into the arc?XD He upped and left right after Hatter’s death like nothing ever happened.

[abominabilis]

I am obsessed with Kuzuryu..

[justasidememeaccount]

[chevka-idk]

[szallejhscorner]

King of Diamonds - Part V

•♦•♦• When Chishiya Shuntarou accepted to remain in the Borderlands as a citizen, I knew there was nothing I could do but to accept as well. •♦•♦• 

AN: In case anyone wants to be added to a taglist, just say so in the comments (:

Chishiya eventually threw me out of his room so he could get some rest. It only made sense since he had been shot twice just a couple of days ago, and while I didn’t want to leave the comfort of his presence, I soon found myself strolling through the main floor, searching for either a familiar face to talk to or something else that could help me find my place in this world now that I belonged to it.

I supposed that Rikki wouldn’t be around now since she had wanted to meet friends of hers, and I didn’t know of anyone of my friends who had accepted the citizenship. They had all been sane enough to decline, except me. But thinking about it, none of my decisions had been exactly sane when it came to Chishiya.

With a long sigh, I glimpsed into open doors at both sides of the hallway in search for anything interesting. As I passed the refectory, I grabbed some small snacks to eat on the way. Only few people were sitting there in small groups, silently talking to each other. I had assumed the room would be filled to the brim since it was evening and plenty of food waited to be eaten, but as I returned to the hallway, the main source of noise seemed to origin from further down. The more I approached a half-opened double door, the more I could hear laughter and shouts of excitement.

At first I was hesitant to walk through, unsure if I was allowed to be there after all, but since no one tried to keep me from entering, I took a deep breath, stuffed the remains of the sandwich I had eaten into my mouth and passed the door.

A huge, cinema-like hall stretched in front of me, although it had more resemblance with the monitoring room from the beach. Dozens, no hundreds of huge monitors covered the walls all around me, and I immediately realized what they were showing.

New games. New players.

Countless people were already playing for their lives, most of them still completely unaware of just how cruel the Borderlands were. They looked desperate, confused, frightened, some of them really angry. All games had already begun, and I avoided my eye from a monitor that suddenly zoomed into the footage of a girl burning to ashes. Luckily for me the sound was either shut off or so silent that I couldn’t hear the screams, but the agony on the blackened face had been enough.

The games had begun, and already people were dying. Some of the easier games were coming to an end and I saw people cheering for their victory, and some monitors turned black since everyone had died in a Game Over.

“Always easy to spot the newcomers, cowering like beaten dogs when they see this”, a deep voice mocked behind me. I turned around to face a tall and tattooed guy who was probably in his late forties and had his head shaved entirely bald, and I could already tell that I wouldn’t like him. He bumped my shoulder and gave a raspy snicker before exiting to the hallway.

I rubbed my arm and walked to a bunch of desks in the middle of the room, where a handful of citizens were gathered around huge boards that had been constructed. Since they didn’t force me to witness death or any other form of violence, the pin boards caught my interest and I supported my hands on one of the tables to get a better view.

Several dozen notes hung there and it was easy to see through what they meant. “That’s… all the games!” I gasped as I read through some of them, giving all the important information about the game type, difficulty, rules and even the solutions.

Someone shifted next to me, and I glimpsed towards another woman about my height, with a tidy ponytail and a good amount of makeup in her face. It made her look like a doll, but somehow it suited her. “Yep”, she begun with a grin that seemed much friendlier compared to the baldhead, “every single game for the next three nights. In case you want to participate.”

“Wow. That seems unfair to me.” Right now people died and fought for their lives, and I could just go and pick one game I was in the right mood for. More and more it dawned on me what it really meant to be a citizen – and how clueless we had been as players.

The woman shrugged. “I thought so too, at first. But think about it! Didn’t we play all those games already, with no one telling us how to do it? We earned us a bit of fun now that the games are nothing but, well – games for us.”

“A bit of fun before we die in the face card games, you mean.”

“Oh, the pessimism.” A hand was reached out for me to shake it. “Welcome to the real Borderlands, then! I’m Myoka Himari.”

Now that I faced Myoka, I noticed that her hair was almost black but her eyes were piercingly blue, quite unusual for a Japanese. It made me wonder if she wore contact lenses or if this was her true eye color, but of course I didn’t ask. I introduced myself instead, and Myoka followed me as I circled the round of tables, scanning the different games that were displayed here. The range went from One of Clubs to Ten of Spades, but the most interesting ones were the Hearts games. Just like the Witch Hunt, the solution usually was quite simple and would allow all players to survive, and yet I knew that it wouldn’t end that way. Not with time pressure and fear blinding people’s minds and fooling their hearts.

“Searching for a game to play tomorrow?” Myoka asked with a certain excitement in her voice, and I really wondered why everyone here was so eager about playing. I had seen more people die than any normal human could bear in their lifetime, and still death was everywhere around me, never ever leaving me in peace. That was the price to pay in order to be close to Chishiya. More and more I doubted that it had been the right decision to stay.

I let out a sigh, trying to shake that thought off. No matter if I wanted it or not, it was too late to change anything. My way back home had been shut off forever, and the only way out was to die. “I wonder”, I muttered instead of answering Myoka’s question, “if those games repeat every relaunch. I can’t seem to recognize any of the ones portrayed here.”

Myoka hummed, backing against one of the tables as her eyes wandered to the notes. “Some do. Not every game will be played each round, but I already attended some of them before.”

“Who’s the organizer, then, if not us citizens?”

“The dealers, of course”, Myoka explained as if this was common knowledge. Maybe it was and everyone knew except me. “They choose from a pool of already existing games and locations, and they also prepare the areas. And clean them afterwards”, she added with a smirk.

“Huh.” I threw a look over my shoulder where a group was making some noise in front of a monitor. Some were cheering loudly, others were complaining, making it obvious that there had been some kind of bet. “We do nothing but observe, then?”

Myoka pushed herself off the table and begun to wander around the hall, expecting me to follow her which I did. “We can do a lot! Participate in games, mingle with the players. We’re even allowed to manipulate things to a certain degree.” Judging from the smirk in her face, she had already done that or at least enjoyed the thought of doing so. “Those who want to apply for a Face Card usually take the time to prepare their games. The big ones are up to us, you know. Almost no restrictions.”

Most of the monitors were going dark now as the night progressed. I thought back to the Face Card games I had played only a week ago. It suited Hibiki to have chosen the escape room-style for his game, but it made me wonder if he had had help with the details since parts like the hidden message on the map or the chemicals seemed too thought out for such a child. And I could easily hear the King of Hearts laugh while he set up the table with poisoned food. Had it been there already for the first round, where all players had died? Or had it been an extra add-on for the second try, to spice things up?

No one would ever tell me the answer.

“Myoka…” I begun, hesitating to continue. Her strikingly blue eyes stared into mine, a silent order to speak on. “Did you know any of the former Face Cards?” She had yet to tell me how many relaunches she already had witnessed, but this obviously wasn’t her first one.

The woman shrugged. “None of them close enough to care. We’re so many, it’s hard getting to know everyone by name before they die.”

I realized that Myoka was leading us out of the huge hall, and I felt relief upon entering the brightly lit hallway. Many people had lost their lives already, and even so early into the new stage, citizens were out there, pretending to be normal players and risking their lives in games even though they didn’t have to.

There were indeed lots of people hustling and bustling around us, making me wonder just how many people were living in the Borderlands overall. Hoping to get an answer from Myoka, I spoke my thoughts out loud.

She simply gestured me to keep on following her, until I found myself in a slightly smaller hall than the monitoring room, although it was still huge compared to the normal chambers we resided in. A lone monitor covered one entire wall, and it was so gigantic that I couldn’t take it all in at once.

At first it was hard to make out what was shown on the monitor, but the closer I approached it, the better I could read the names. Hundreds, if not thousands of them.

Every name had a number assigned, and while most of them were displayed in white on black ground, some had been colored red. “More than three thousand players!” I uttered in disbelief, still trying to take it all in.

“Yesss.” Myoka nodded. “In a week, a few hundred of them will be dead. At the end of stage one, probably four of five hundred will be left alive. And if they succeed to clear all Face Cards…” She paused, recalculating. “Last round, we had seventy-five survivors if I’m not wrong. And thirteen of them decided to stay – including you. I don’t know if it’s possible to get insight into the former launches, but I think the numbers are always about the same.”

Seventy-five out of three thousand. Not more had survived, and it was frightening. This world was even deadlier than I had thought!

Next to me, Myoka was stretching her upper body and patting her stomach. “A lot to process, I know. And if I’m being honest, I could definitely use something to eat now. A steak, maybe? Care to join me?”

I shook my head, unable to speak. What stretched out in front of me captivated me in a way that prevented my feet from moving, and I knew my stomach couldn’t handle food right now. The sandwich was already causing nausea, however I tried my best to keep it in.

Myoka clapped on my shoulder as a goodbye. “Alright, see you, then!” She disappeared into the hallway and hurried towards the refectory while I could do nothing but stare at all those names. Over three thousand, and it was just the number of newcomers. Every several weeks, thousands of people were sent here to die. Just... how did no one ever notice back in the real world? How could so many people disappear from the surface without causing any suspicion?

It gave me goose bumps to think that someone might have stood here and watched that board, reading my name and Chishiya’s while having similar thoughts. And someone before them… and before them… a never ending cycle whose only way of escape was death.

Upon so many names, the possibility was high to find someone I knew. Yet I didn’t recognize a single one, and once I had scanned almost every name, my eyes were burning and my head threatened to explode with pain.

As I turned around, a single beeping noise caused me to throw one last glimpse over my shoulder. All at once, several names blinked a few times until they changed their color to red, and I hurried out of the room while a tear rolled down my cheek. Midnight had just passed, and those names were all the people killed by lasers because they hadn’t taken care of their visa. Since it was only the first day, I supposed they had died of lack of knowledge.

Hurrying through the hallway, I didn’t dare to lift my head whenever I passed another citizen. They sure would see me crying, but there was no need to show them the guilt and misery I felt. All of them were here because they wanted to. The thought of becoming a citizen, manipulating players or even killing them didn’t scare anyone else but me. It was obvious that I didn’t belong into this world, and I wondered if those feelings would ever vanish.

Rikki had said that she knew of nobody who remained here more than a handful of relaunches. Maybe I’d be the one to change that, because I couldn’t imagine becoming a Face Card and either being responsible for the death of others or dying a terrible death myself. Chishiya would lead Diamonds game after Diamonds game given he survived, but one day he’d be dead. It was inevitable, and I couldn’t follow him to the very end.

Maybe I could find a way out after all?

I barely noticed how my feet flew up the stairs and how door after door rushed past me. It was a miracle that I found the room that was now mine without accidentally stumbling into someone else’s home, and I avoided looking into the mirror as I brushed my teeth and washed the tears from my face.

Sleep was what I desperately needed right now, since the headache wouldn’t get better and my eyes burnt mainly from crying now. Yet I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes being here all alone, so I eventually headed for the medical wing and tiptoed to Chishiya’s room.

It was dark inside and I heard nothing but Chishiya’s calm breathing, however I knew he was awake the moment I opened the door.

“Hey, Chishiya… can I sleep here tonight?” I whispered straightforward, and the blonde shifted in his bed, apparently to look at me.

He stayed silent for a few moments before his low voice interrupted the quietness. “Why?”

I sighed. “There’s so much I have to talk to you about, but we better leave that for tomorrow. For now… I’m frightened to be alone.” The thousands of names turning red would follow me into my dreams, and only Chishiya could keep them away from me. This part I kept for myself of course, since the blonde would only call me childish and pathetic. And still he understood.

“Snore and you’ll be out.”

His bluntness made me smile, and I climbed into his bed, cuddling up to Chishiya to give him a kiss. The hug only lasted for a minute before I turned around, because I knew he wouldn’t sleep as long as my touch constrained him. Sleeping right next to Chishiya in the same bad was already something I highly appreciated, and I whispered a “Good night” before I allowed sleep to lull me in.

And as I had predicted, Chishiya’s presence caused it to be a dreamless one.

[aceofspadegrass]

I have to be honest with you i Just binge read your blog and i love your Mira and Kuzuryū sibiling bonding headcanons and stuff, I BEG YOU ON MY KNEES i Need some more they're my Happy Place 😭

Oh thank you! You're ever so kind. They hold a very funny place in my heart, chilling on that island with coconuts.

Here's a few that I am literally making up from the top of my head just for you. It's been a few long months since I've talked about them so.

Once just for fun they tried to dye their hairs together (Kuzuryuu less as enthused but Mira is very determined) except Mira could pull it off. Kuzuryuu.... Not so much. His businessman aesthetic did NOT match the sudden blue tone of his hair.

They of course tried a second time and Kuzuryuu got less stares from the single white strip in his bands. Made him look respectable. Natural. Mira then slowly added more and more until he was a proper salt and peppered man.

Mira, just because, has tried to chuck foam balls into the vats of acid. She has succeeded. Kuzuryuu does not know she did this.

They celebrated Halloween together dressed like the Wonderland Queen of Hearts and a judge that read DEATH PENALTY on the back. They spent the entire time talking about spooky stories (Half of them were law based, the other were genuinely spooky stories).

Kuzuryuu has had to massage out Mira's neck pain after she stretched too hard. Chided her the entire time.

They split popsicles together.

[mistbornthief]

alice in borderland but all the games have theme songs

[game-of-clubs]

how would ya describe your ideal man?

Oh! Great question!!

◊ Wears glasses

◊ Uses acid for his game

◊ King of Diamonds

◊ Very smart

◊ Tells great jokes

◊ Is a lawyer

◊ @diamond-attorney-keiichi

-♣

[proseinborderland]

Omg hello could you please do something on Kuzuryu x reader smut? There is so little content for him and he s such a king (quite literally)

✨🖤 Hi there gorgeous! So, I've been thinking about your request today and the answer is Yes! However, ...

♦️ ...I would like to write the fic with a different pairing. Would Kuzuryu x Lisa (Queen of Spades,) be okay with you? If not, just message me with a few more details about what you're looking for and I'll make it happen!

♠ I love the idea of writing for other Alice in Borderland characters who aren't represented enough within the fandom, but I can't believe I got a Kuzuryu req right after one for Kyuma! It felt odd and refreshing, lol. I also write for Chishiya too, which is common, I know - but always worth mentioning just so that you do ;-)

♦️ I am adding this to my list, though I cannot guarantee when it will be out. We all do this for fun, so I am not going to pressure myself. I'd rather make Kuzuryu fans proud with my naughty story. lol (Should post within a few days.)

♠ Please keep the prompts and headcannons coming, I love them!

♦️ & I seriously love you all! I love this fandom! I love dirty smut! I love writing it too! In fact, I'm going to go write some right now!

♥ If you would like to be tagged in this post let me know.

🖤 Bye Bye!

Q♠ (Kay)

[rakkikuroba]

It been a while i wanted to talk about this but i wouldn’t sound like the annoying kind.

But. Kuzuryuu’s game.

Whatever it was Aqua Regia (like in the manga) or acid sulfuric, the fume both release are highly toxic to humans. And acid sulfuric doesn’t even smell so you wouldn’t even know! (Aqua regia has an awful smell which probably was how the old man was able to tell what it was.)

Even when the game only took around 15 to 20 min, just the ton of fume it released during the two first acid deaths would have been enough to kill all the others :) Also acid sulfuric is more of a oily liquid and become really agressive (and toxic) if mixed with water.

Also it’s a small, underground with no windows room so that doesn’t help.

I would have used lava. Sodium hydroxyde. I would have used sodium hydroxyde. It liquefies rather well animals (and human) and it’s not toxic. It’s not even an acid! It’s a base and does as well the job

[jack-of-emos]

Who is the king of diamonds?

Your mother

-J❤

[reddamselette]

rewatching aib and i’m just thinking abt valgrace in it.

whoever doesn’t know what aib is: alice in borderland is a japanese drama where the characters have to play games in order to survive. these games are based off playing cards meaning that each suit is a different type of game (spades - physical, diamonds - wit, etc) and the number of the card determines difficulty (face cards like king and queen are inherently much, much more difficult than a card of 2 or 7). not to mention that players can also just chill and relax until their visas are up. if they fail to play a game beforehand, boom they die. and last but not least about the games; players don’t know what type it will be until registration is closed. basically the gist of what aib is.

but anyway. valgrace.

i definitely think they wouldn’t have met until they entered the borderlands. maybe it was during a game or even in passing but they meet.

and while they both have extraordinary skills depending on who they were before entering the borderlands, leo would be extremely well-versed in diamond games while jason excels at spades games.

so the way i’m thinking is that if they were to meet in a game, it would probably be one of those or even a club game (because clubs are teamwork games and hearts games genuinely play with your heart). so they meet and all in all, they end up working together—protecting one another, picking up what the other lacks, bouncing off of each other’s capabilities pretty much.

and they spend a lot of time together after that, possibly even meeting the others like percy or piper or nico. but it just doesn’t last.

because the universe will never let them love each other and live. so jason loses leo in a hearts game and he’s fucking devastated. and the thing is—this is a spoiler but i mean come on, aib has been out since 2020 i think—is that after they return to the real world, it doesn’t even matter. because jason doesn’t remember anything about the borderlands but there’s always that emptiness in him. and he doesn’t know what it is or what it could be.

which then brings me to the next drama.

squid games.

jason would still lose leo before inevitably dying himself. remember that marble game with saebyeok and jiyeong? yeah. leo would sacrifice himself, he would thank jason for playing with him, for talking about getting out together and making their plans that are nothing but a pipe dream. and just like saebyeok, jason dies later on.

it’s always going to be unfair. they’ll never be able to love each other and grow old together because it’s simply impossible. they’re not allowed to.

i just think that no matter what universe it is, valgrace will never completely have eachother. they’re just so fucking doomed. and i love them for that.

[gothiclantern]

So I was on the alice in borderland tag and I saw someone mention how chishiya from AIB and nagito from danginronpa v2 are very similar. So I decided to see which character match up the best. ALSO, potential spoilers for both series!!!!

So obviously first up is Arisu and Hajime. Besides being the main character of their respective series, both struggle with hopelessness and despair (tehe). They also are pathetic wet cats that get hit on/ shipped with everyone. Also I find it weird that Chishiya and Arisus photos switched suits? So Arisu has a diamond and Chishiya has hearts. Just find it strange.

Secondly, Usagi and Chiaki. Both share rabbit/ bunny homages with Usagi’s name literally meaning rabbit and Chiakis connection to Monomi. Both also act as the main female protagonist/ love interest. Also are frequently hated on for “getting in the way” of the main mlm ship (Hajime/Nagito & Arisu/Chishiya)

And these bitches. Other than having the crustiest most nasty bleached hair/ wig. Both are the lucky/genius character often found in Japanese media. I honestly hate the archetype so much because wdym Chishiya survived solitary confinement by GUESSING his suit. Anyways, both are the main male character shipped with the male protagonist . Could also argue that both are antagonists.

Another pretty easy one, Tatta and Kazuichi. Other than them both being mechanics, they struggle with being very jumpy and coward like, and are frequently bullied by the other members (niragi/ Hiyoko) in the end both end up being brave and overcome their fear to win the king of clubs game/ defeat Junko enoshima. Also they did my boy Tatta dirty because why doesn’t he have a official picture

Now this one I have to explain a little more. Despite already having an established character named Akane . I felt as though kuinas fighting style/personality fit Akane better. I don’t know much about Alana’s backstory, I feel as though both her and Kuina feel a need to prove their strength and independence. Also both are divas <3

——Part 2 coming soon

[szallejhscorner]

King of Diamonds - Part VI

•♦•♦• When Chishiya Shuntarou accepted to remain in the Borderlands as a citizen, I knew there was nothing I could do but to accept as well. •♦•♦•

AN: In case anyone wants to be added to the taglist, just say so in the comments (:

@beewolfwrites​ @dripoftheseus​

“Can someone please explain what the heck happened here?”

As we walked through Tokyo, I could barely stop shaking my head with disbelief. Chishiya next to me answered with nothing but a snort, although I noticed that he too was eyeing our surroundings with interest.

At the end of stage two, the city had been a jungle covered in corpses. Not only had nature taken back almost every part of the city, with trees splitting concrete and entire building walls, but the King of Spades had decorated the remaining streets with dead people. Chishiya and I had stayed inside the hotel for less than a week, and with the tempo of decay I had experienced until then, I’d been sure to find an even thicker jungle with hundreds of skeletons.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case.

Not only the games had been relaunched – the Borderlands had gone through an entire reset, as if going back to an earlier safe point when playing a game. Tokyo looked more like Japan’s capital city again, and there was not a single corpse. Not even bones scattered around here and there. Nothing hinted at the terror we all had been going through just two weeks ago, and it was something my mind couldn’t really grasp.

Letting go of the blonde’s hand, I pushed against the door of a grocery store and it opened with just a bit of force. A foul smell greeted me and I glanced to the produce section with disgust, not even daring to search for the meat or fish section, but the store was still full of cans and packages, drinks and all the stuff us players had been roaming for.

“I remember this store”, I muttered, assuming that Chishiya had followed me inside since I heard footsteps behind me, “and it was definitely both empty and completely demolished. This… I….”

There were no words to describe the chaos in my mind. I could somehow accept the fact that hundreds of people disappeared into a parallel Tokyo. But this? An entire city rebuilding and restocking itself within just three days?

Chishiya reached for a pack of cookies and hummed with interest. “It makes sense though”, he mused, “Tokyo has been ripped off anything useful once we finished the second stage. New players would starve to death rather than die in games if there was no restock. I guess this is the starting position for each relaunch.”

My eyes flew to him in bewilderment. Pink glittering unicorns could dance around us and Chishiya would watch and analyze them without losing his poker face. “Don’t take too many cookies, then”, I scoffed, “leave them for the players. We have plenty of them in the hotel.”

He held my gaze with a raised brow and took the cookies anyway. I knew he hardly cared about anyone else but him, less the new players that would try to kill him eventually. “You accepted your role as a Citizen, then”, he stated.

I shrugged, feeling a bit of unease. “What else could I do.”

We left the store and continued to stroll through Tokyo, through streets that were now recognizable again. Barely a single root had yet to make it through the concrete, and most of the windows were still intact. Looking around, it was hard to believe that the city would turn into a jungle within mere weeks.

The crunching of cookies was the only sound accompanying us for a while. When I had asked Chishiya to go for a walk with me earlier this morning, there hadn’t been a certain goal in my mind. I’d just been longing for some fresh air and quietness, and Chishiya obviously didn’t mind to go along with me. His wounds were healing extraordinarily quickly, which wasn’t surprising to me anymore. Everything seemed to be possible in the Borderlands, and there were still so many things I didn’t know.

At one point, the blonde next to me just came to a stand, and I turned around to see him staring at one of the buildings to the left. It was something I wouldn’t have noticed in passing, but now I immediately recognized the double doors.

“The King of Hearts”, I whispered. At once, I felt out of breath, and I remembered the pain in every single muscle as Chishiya and I had tried to escape the King of Spades. This door that we were facing now, the former King of Hearts venue, had been our only chance to survive for the moment. No blimp was hovering above our heads now, and no wreckage lay around. I was sure that if I went inside now, I’d find no table with poisoned sweets, no blood on the carpets of the four symbol rooms. No electric chair.

Out of all games I had played, this one had been the hardest for me. One of my hands moved to the opposite wrist to rub the scar caused by the chair, like I always did when something made me nervous.

But that belonged to the past now. The game had been cleared, the King was long dead. Feeling the urge to move on, I tucked the sleeve of Chishiya’s hoodie, but he didn’t move.

A slight frown darkened his beautiful features, and his lips parted seconds before he spoke. “You were dead”, was all he muttered eventually.

“Huh?”

“You had stopped breathing. It was unlikely for the rest of us to make it out alive.”

Despite the circumstances, I couldn’t help but smile. I’d never forget the warm and comfortable place that had been calling for me, luring me into its embrace. Chishiya’s voice on the other side, surrounded by pain and darkness. “But you told me to stay.”

“And you listened, for once.” His eyes met mine, and I knew he wouldn’t say more. It was enough for me to understand, though.

I cupped my hand around his cheek, caressing his skin with my thumb as I moved closer to him. Chishiya didn’t complain when I kissed him, just a few heartbeats long before I let our foreheads touch. It was hard at times to keep in mind why I had chosen Chishiya as the man I wanted to be with, but in secret moments like this, he made me remember.

The feint sound of voices made me lift my head and end this tender moment. Chishiya had noticed it as well, and with a nod, indicated me to start walking. I didn’t spare the game venue one more look as we finally left the huge and windowless building behind, and the feeling of unease had made way for excitement since the voices could mean only one thing: we were about to meet some of the players.

We followed the voices and an intensifying trail of weed smoke through side streets until we reached a wide plaza with a dozen caravans, obviously the source of the talking. A total of eleven people had gathered around a campfire in the middle of the plaza, some of them sitting on logs or barrels, others standing together, drinking beer and laughing.

They quickly noticed our appearance and called us over, not at all hesitant or wary to meet us.

“New players!” One of them, a corpulent yet small man wearing a dirty bright yellow shirt and green cap on his head cheered, “thank God, we’re really not the only ones out here.”

A woman with a flower dress and curly hair, probably in her late forties, raised a canned beer with one hand while turning a joint around in the other. “More people to celebrate Armageddon with!”

I looked at Chishiya questioningly, unsure if it’d be a good idea to mingle with the new players so early through the first stage, but he just shrugged and sat down on one of the makeshift benches. Someone walked up to me and led me to one of the logs sooner than I realized, and I found myself sitting next to the dress-wearing woman.

“Hi”, I croaked out, clearing my throat as I felt the rest of the words getting stuck half-way out. We were allowed to mix with the players, play games and all that as long as we didn’t tell anyone who we really were. Just like Asahi had been instantly killed after announcing her identity as a Dealer, a red laser would crash through my skull once I dared to tell one of the players about us Citizens. Could I pretend to be someone I was not? Could I look these people in the eyes, knowing full well they had to fight for their lives while I could watch them on one of the plenty monitors inside the hotel?

A can of beer found its way into my hand, and I took a sip, hoping that some alcohol would ease the pressure I felt. The beer tasted terrible, it was hot and stale, but it was alcohol nonetheless. After emptying half of the can within a few seconds, I introduced Chishiya and me, smiling when there were comments about the blonde’s quite special last name.

Chishiya was also holding a beer, but he didn’t drink any of it. Instead, he examined every one of the players around us, listening to the stories they told us about how long they’d been here already. The maximum seemed to be four days.

Four days. What shouldn’t sound like a short time could feel longer than an eternity here in the Borderlands, I knew that too well myself. If one was unlucky, four days could mean three or four games, thus three or four chances to die or lose people one knew and liked. The constant terror of not knowing how long I’d survive and how my end would come had always caused me nightmares, and the few days in between the games couldn’t give much ease.

Now, at least this kind of nightmares was kept away from my dreams. It was a soothing thought – knowing that there was no visa running out for me, that no Roamer would chase me to death.

Chishiya and I, we belonged to this world now. I felt alien along the people sitting here around that campfire, like the traitor I probably was. Yet I sat here and drank beer out of metal cans and ate snacks out of plastic bags with people who wondered if they’d still sit here tomorrow while I, on the other hand, could go back to the hotel tonight and order something crazy like Argentinean rump steak with mashed sweet potatoes and watch the games from a comfy sofa.

“I know that look”, the woman next to me said, grinding the joint remains under her heel, “try not to worry and instead live for the present. The games are much less frightening if you don’t think about them all the time.”

I swallowed and was unable to get out an answer. She seemed so kind and yet was so completely wrong about what bothered me. Her face showed first signs of wrinkles, but her hazel hair was still full and falling down her shoulders in shiny waves. A beautiful woman for sure despite the circumstances.

Once more misinterpreting my silence, she continued: “you know, my son always had that look when he was about to write a test. It gets better, I promise.”

Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

One of the men caught her attention by calling her Yukinari, throwing another beer towards her once she turned to him.

“Do you miss him?” I asked, trying to change the topic. It didn’t work out too well, though, as tears welled up in her eyes.

Her voice was only a whisper when she answered. “Every second I’m awake, and even in my dreams. It wasn’t fair that it had to happen to him.”

Several dark imaginations filled my mind about what happened. A lethal illness, maybe – cancer, heart failure; a car incident?

“I’m…. sorry. I didn’t intend to-”

“It’s fine”, Yukinari interrupted me. “Whenever I talk about him, it keeps him alive. Would… would you mind listening to his story?”

I shook my head. “Not at all.” A side glance towards Chishiya told me that he had started a conversation with someone else, but his eyes wandered to me now and then, observing my behavior and probably trying to make sure I wouldn’t say something forbidden.

Yukinari’s voice was shaking at first when she started to talk about Masaru, her only son who had been seventeen years old. They had come to the Borderlands together, and of course they’d decided to enter their first game together as well. What they couldn’t have known though, was that the game would be an Eight of Hearts. I remembered some of the details since I had read the note after Myoka had shown me the pin boards, but Yukinari couldn’t bring herself to amplify. Masaru had been one of the first to die when the players had started to kill each other, leaving his mother not only lost and confused, but utterly heart-broken an in a pain only a mother could comprehend. At least she’d have a couple of days more to mourn until her next game.

“Masaru loved to play basketball”, Yukinari continued, her voice much more solid now, and I could even catch a smile on her face. “He was best of his class, with a bright future lying ahead of him…”

More stories followed about his basketball career and how Masuru had disliked nothing as much as maths, but I listened only half-heartedly. I felt so incredibly sorry for this woman and it made me think about my parents and how they had lost me as their child. How did I disappear in the real world? And how did they mourn me?

What if Yukinari had other relatives waiting for her to come back?

I couldn’t bring back Yukinari’s son, but I could make sure at least the mother returned to the real world. I had insight into the games and their rules, which meant I could lure Yukinari into the ones granting a high chance of survival. This way, she would easily make it through the first stage, and then I’d find a similar way to get her to the finish line.

Chishiya’s piercing glance made me lift my head, and his eyes were serious. He knew I plotted something I probably shouldn’t do, but as far as I knew, it wasn’t against the rules if I maintained a low profile. I shrugged, trying to tell the blonde that he didn’t need to worry about me.

“…Masuru would have loved the Camp”, the woman finished, and I nodded.

“I’m sure he would have.” Taking another sip from the terrible beer, I looked around the makeshift hideout. The caravans brought back wonderful memories from the days I had spent in one together with Chishiya, until one heavy argument had caused us to part. “You really call this place just that? The Camp?”

The scratching sound of wood against concrete right next to me made me flinch, and a pretty young guy, probably in his late teens, took a seat on the log he had just shoved next to mine. He smelled after alcohol and weed, but the glance in his eyes seemed still sober. “Short and fitting. It’s a good name, if you ask me. And catchy enough for more people to join – on top of the fact that you guys have drugs here.”

“I don’t mind the Camp growing”, a man next to Chishiya added, “the more we are, the easier it gets to gather supplies and have fun. Maybe someone will be able to hunt and get us fresh meat, eh!”

Kuina’s face immediately came to my mind. The tall woman had been able to do just that, and with her help, meals had always been way better than just tasteless noodles and stale beer. I missed her.

The youngster, who introduced himself as Honma, gave me a lopsided sneer. “And more people will mean more girls.”

His wink made me snort and I rolled my eyes. “I’m taken, thank you very much.”

Honma didn’t press on further, too occupied with rolling a joint. His lower arms were covered in tattoos, and I could also see a very nasty scar on the right one. Whatever had happened there didn’t heal very well, and it still looked painful although it had to be old already.

The wind blew the joint’s sickeningly sweet smell directly into my face, and I used that as an excuse to switch logs so I could be next to Chishiya and further away from that weird guy. The blonde had started a conversation with two others and was currently briefly telling them about his very first game, the Six of Diamonds. He of course let out the detail that the game had taken place weeks prior instead of just four days, letting the others believe he was a newbie just like them.

“Six of Diamonds?” One of them asked, “mine was a Five of Clubs. I wonder what the symbols stand for, or if they have a meaning at all.”

“Of course there’s a meaning. The four types stand for different categories – Diamonds, for example, are games about intelligence. And your Clubs game included teamwork, didn’t it?”

“It… It did, yes! You must be pretty clever then. How did you figure it out so quickly?”

Chishiya gave him a smirk that didn’t even try to hide his arrogance. “Oh, I am clever. It is all about observing. Yukinari’s game was Hearts, and she said that most of the players turned against each other. A game that plays with people’s hearts, standing to reason. Diamonds not only has the sharp edges, but it also represents the sharpness of the mind. Clubs, with its multiple blades, stands for multiple players that need to work together.”

Everyone else had stopped talking, and even I was speechless. This was the first time someone made me think about why each symbol stood for a certain ability, and what Chishiya said made so much sense! He could have definitely figured that out on his fourth day in the Borderlands.

Honma hummed impressed. “And Spades, what about that?”

With a nod towards me, Chishiya gave him a slight shrug. “Their first game had been a Spades one, and I know it was about physical activity. So that’s the last one.”

Taken aback, I tried not to show my surprise too openly. I had never told him about my very first game in these lands, so how did he know?

His eyes glinted with a hidden satisfaction when he noticed my confusion, and his lips silently formed the word “Beach”. As a former executive of the Beach, he must have known because of the playing card I had brought with me when joining Hatter’s utopia. His cleverness surprised me every day anew, it was almost scary.

Many of the people sitting around the fire started to talk about the games they had played already, confirming Chishiya’s statement about the symbols. The topic smoothly transitioned from games to our previous lives to escape plans and whatnot, how the Camp had been formed and if Chishiya and I didn’t want to join. Luckily for me, the blonde reacted quickly enough and played out the boyfriend-card, telling the others that we had found a nice abandoned suite and preferred to stay there. For privacy reasons, they probably assumed judging by their sly smiles, but I didn’t mind as long as they didn’t press further. I couldn’t possibly tell them that I had no need of staying in one of their caravans since a nice warm dinner and a hot shower would be waiting for me.

Maybe I could bring Chishiya to spend a few nights here in the future, though. I somehow missed our time in the caravan.

But sooner than I realized, the sky above our heads turned from a flawless blue into several hues of red and purple, indicating that night would fall soon. With the promise to return the next day, Chishiya and I waved goodbye and left the Camp, when Honma did the same and jogged through the street to catch up with us.

“Let me accompany you”, he grinned, and my mind immediately begun to spin around, searching for an argument to send him away so he wouldn’t find the Citizen base.

“I… well, you know…” I stuttered, but Chishiya patted my shoulder in reassurance.

“It’s alright”, he said, “Honma is one of us.”

Once more I was bewildered, but of course Chishiya knew that as well. He had probably seen the youngster during the last days or something, although at that point I was too tired to ask.

Instead I let out a sigh and put up with the fact that my private time with Chishiya would have to wait. Honma adjusted his pace to ours, carrying such a content grin on his face it made me shudder. He had been quite talented in playing the role of the innocent young man still learning about this world, and as we walked, the ugly scar on his arm caught my eyes again and again.

Honma eventually noticed, and his smile grew even wilder. “You want to know what happened, right?” He didn’t wait for me to answer, since my curiosity was obvious enough for him to continue. “You probably think it was a game injury. It wasn’t. In fact, I cut it out myself.”

“And why would you do that?”

He scratched the scar, a gesture so familiar that it caused me to look at my own wrists. “To escape the King of Spades. Once I realized he could track every single one of us via GPS, I did everything to locate the sender - and remove it.”

Chishiya lifted his head, now listening with open interest. We both had known the King’s ability to track us, but I had never considered a sender inside our bodies. One of the very few things the blonde probably hadn’t thought of, either. “You knew where to cut. But you obviously didn’t know how to do it properly.”

Honma shrugged. “I don’t care about one more scar. But yes, I did my homework. It would have been suicidal to cut my whole body open and play a guessing game.”

The more he said, the less I wanted him to continue, having a feeling in my guts that the answer wouldn’t be to my liking.

“Since the King of Spades left more than enough corpses in my way, I had plenty of chances to search for other people’s senders. And surprise, surprise! They’re all located in the very same spot. What a shame though that I’m usually right-handed; it made the operation a lot more difficult.”

I huffed. Back in the real world, the mere thought of doing that – noodling around with dead people’s bodies – would have disgusted, even terrified me to no end. Now I caught myself calling it brilliant in my mind – since until this point I had been sure it was impossible to escape the Roamer’s radar.

“Chishiya and I, we still have those senders, right?” I concluded, scanning my right arm for something under my skin that didn’t belong there. Of course I found nothing.

Honma nodded, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I guess so. But they’re probably shut off now that they’re not needed anymore.”

“I doubt that”, Chishiya threw in, causing both Honma and I to turn around to him. “You were not part of the Beach, but during the Witch Hunt, one of the Dealers revealed her identity and was killed immediately. If they didn’t remove the senders during the relaunch, which I doubt they have, they will use it to control our movements in case we infringe the rules. Or to kill us if we die in our own games.”

This was a theory that yet needed to be tested, but if it really was true, this could change a lot. I assumed that whoever ruled the Borderlands was aware that one of their Citizens was running around without a sender, and Honma was probably under observation or had another sender implanted during the relaunch without knowing.

For me, it could be a true game changer, though. Maybe I’d be able to leave Tokyo at some point, find out what else was hidden beyond the city’s borders. The risk of being killed remained, but for once, it didn’t scare me. And it wouldn’t scare me once Chishiya would be gone, leaving me all alone and hollow.

Oh, how this land had changed me.

[arichishiya]

Community Characters as AIB Face Cards

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Jeff Winger - King of Hearts/Spades

Britta Perry - Queen of Clubs

Annie Edison - Queen of Hearts/Diamonds

Abed Nadir - King of Diamonds

Troy Barnes - King of Clubs

Shirley Bennett - Queen of Diamonds/Hearts

Pierce Hawthorne - Jack of Spades

Ben Chang - Jack of Hearts/Spades

Dean Pelton - Jack of Clubs

Frankie Dart - Queen of Diamonds

Elroy Patashnik - King of Diamonds

Buzz Hickey - King of Spades

SIDE CHARACTERS:

Vice Dean Robert Laybourne - King of Hearts

Fat Neil - Jack of Clubs

Vickey - Queen of Spades

Starburns (Alex) - Jack of Hearts

Annie Kim - Queen of Diamonds/Hearts

Garrett Lambert - Jack of Clubs

Pavel - Jack of Clubs

Gilbert Lawson - Jack of Diamonds

Michelle Slater - Queen of Diamonds

Ian Duncan - Jack of Hearts

Leonard Rodriguez - Jack of Spades

Vaughn Miller - Jack of Clubs

Rich Stephenson - Jack of Hearts/Diamonds

Alan Connor - Jack of Hearts

Eustice Whitman - Jack of Clubs

Jeremy Simmons - Jack of Diamonds

Magnitude - Jack of Clubs

Marshall Kane - King of Spades

Professor Cligoris - Jack of Diamonds

Rick (Subway/Honda) - Jack of Hearts

Dean Spreck - King of Hearts

[beewolfwrites]

whats your fav game from aib?

It's probably the same as everyone else's. I’m torn between the Jack of Hearts and the King of Diamonds.

Even though they left some of the manga details out, I did enjoy the Netflix adaptation of the Jack of Hearts. They managed to capture the oppressive atmosphere of the prison, and it just made everything so much more sinister. The whole game is simple but terrifying.

I also loved the king of diamonds game. Though as much as I liked the adaptation’s version of it, I they missed out all the game theory elements which made it so clever. For example, how the invalidity rule stops the players from reaching a nash equilibrium, which is Kuzuryu’s way of making sure the game is both fair and difficult af