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szallejhscorner · 2 years ago

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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.

#king of diamonds #chishiya #chishiya shuntaro #aib chishiya #alice in borderland #aib

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wingstobetorn · 2 years ago

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Not some of ya'll saying Arisu is smarter than Chishiya

#personal #pretty sure it's confirmed that Chishiya and Niragi are literally the smartest players? 😑#(and yes Niragi's specialty is Diamonds. it's just not shown in the adaption.)

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mxgenderblender · 9 months ago

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Slightly disappointed that no one has made an Alice In Borderland version of the song Alice Of Human Sacrifice. I feel like it fits so well with the main four

The song in question ↓:

youtube

And then my personally favorite cover of it ↓:

youtube

#aib #alice in borderland #arisu ryohei #usagi as the spades #chishiya as the diamond #kuina as the clubs #arusi (and hajime) as the heart #Youtube

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yazzwrites6962 · 3 months ago

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hi! I really loved your niragi and chishiya works! I can't wait to see more of redemption! I really enjoy seeing how people write characters like these two and how they interpret them, and so far, I've enjoyed how you wrote them!

Redemption ♡ Suguru Niragi ♡ Part Two

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ Suguru Niragi x Fem!Reader ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Part One: Here

Author's Note: UNEDITED! Shoutout to those who asked for another part. I love you guyssss. Also, Y/N's profession/life before the Borderlands is mentioned. Feel free to change it! Sorry for the super long chapter. I know it's pretty messy. I'll work on editing and cleaning up soon. I had four midterms this week, because my professors hate me. Again, I don't own any characters/images!

Genre: BIG ANGST. Maybe a word or two of fluff

Summary: As it becomes obvious that Niragi has a soft spot for Y/N, he is forced to prove where his loyalties lie.

Word Count: 5397

Warnings: Sexual themes, language, OOC Niragi, derogatory language referencing the reader, mentions of substance use, fear, blood, injury, death, cliffhanger

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

"You seem different." A gruff voice teased, nudging Niragi's arm. "You're all smitten over that one girl, aren't you? Is the pussy that good? Maybe I'll have to try her out myself." Niragi flinched, growling at the fellow militant. The room filled with laughter. "She's got a pretty pair of eyes I'd love to see rolling back."

"I'm not different," He huffed, loading his gun. "and I'm not smitten. Get outta here with that lovey dovey bullshit." It had been four days since your last game with Niragi, and the members of the Beach would have to be blind not to have noticed the change in his demeanor.

Every day since that game, Niragi would wake up bright and early to have a silent breakfast with you. You didn't speak much, as you were usually very groggy in the morning. Instead, he would enjoy your sleepy presence. He had grown fond of your messy hair and the way you covered your face when you yawned. He enjoyed seeing the way your eyes drooped even while you shoveled food into your mouth. He loved to look at you; The raw you.

"Nahhh man. You've obviously got a soft spot for the chick." Chimed another militant. "You used to go 'round killing people and shit. Yelling and fucking bitches, getting high all the time. You were fun. Now you're having breakfast with the boring one."

Why were you referred to the boring one? That's difficult to say. Maybe because you spent so much time with Kuina and Chishiya, who mostly seemed to be on the sidelines at parties. Maybe because of your calm nature. Maybe because you were a decent diamonds player. Either way, nobody had envisioned Niragi falling for a 'boring' girl. He was always spotted dragging rowdy women back to his room, notorious for his partner of the night being loud enough to shake the entire floor.

"I do not have a soft spot." Niragi seethed, slamming his gun against the wall and making a loud bang. Everyone jumped, but then continued to laugh at Niragi's frustration. He didn't know why it irritated him so much to be accused of having a soft spot for you. Normally, he couldn't care less about what others thought.

"Then prove it." Chuckled one of the guys. "Your visa is about to expire, ain't it? Hers too, right? Why don't you kill her?" In the normal world, death would be extreme. The mere suggestion of killing another person would send the room into a silent shock. However, in the Borderlands, killing people meant nothing. The militants, especially Niragi, would kill people all the time.

Death to traitors, death to enemies in games, death to anyone who got in the way. It's safe to say that Niragi was probably the most trigger happy of the whole group. Then why? Why did the idea make him feel so nauseous? Even in the last game, you'd injured your led. Watching the blood run down your body as you limped through the game felt like torture to him.

"I'm not gonna kill a the girl just because you tell me to, asshat." Niragi replies, trying to summon up everything he has in order to seem calm. Really, he's panicked inside. He may not be religious, but he prays to any deity that will listen; He prays that the other militants will drop the subject.

"No, think about it." The guy shining his gun in the corner inserts himself into the conversation. "We are the power; We are the order here at the Beach. Right? We gotta stick together. We can't have you getting distracted over a pretty bitch."

"Man, maybe that's a little extreme. She seems like a fine girl, so why not let the man have his fun with her?" Relief washes over Niragi as someone advocates for him. For you. You deserve an advocate in your defense. Why was he so hesitant to be that?

"If the people of the Beach see Niragi going all soft, they're gonna think the rest of us are soft too. This place runs on fear and respect. If people don't fear us anymore, it creates chaos. Do you want chaos? Huh?" The man shining his gun continues to explain, slowly winning over the agreement of the others.

"Bro you must be drunk or something." The advocate rolls his eyes, standing up to leave the room. Before he can get to the door, a loud shot fires and echoes through the little room. There is no more laughter, only absolute silence. The advocate, your advocate, was dead. Shot, clean through the back of the head.

"Dude what the fuck-" Someone pipes up, but the man who shot him only rolls his eyes, unphased by the death. Maybe nobody in the room is very phased by death itself, only at the man's extreme reaction to someone's disagreement.

"This is what we're about guys. C'mon. Fuck! We're the militants. Even saying our names brings fear into people here. Lives are meaningless in this place. His life meant nothing to anyone. Can a single person in here tell me his name?" Crickets. Silence. Niragi debates shooting this lunatic, but every pair of eyes in the room suddenly land on him. "So, Niragi, is it gonna be us or your bitch of the week?"

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

"What were you, before you came here?" You ask, suddenly breaking the silence in your morning ritual. You were more alert today, knowing that at the end of the night, you could be dead. Your visa expires today. "Were you in the military?"

"No." Niragi replies coldly, poking at an egg on his plate. You continue to watch him as he toys with his food, still waiting for a longer answer. His eyes meet yours before he groans and sits back in his chair. "Game engineer. Why in the world would you think I was in the military?"

"Oh, it's just the way you swing that gun around. You always seem so confident." You giggle and flash him a smile. "Who would've thought there a brain somewhere in that hard head of yours?" His eyes flash with irritation for a moment at your joke.

"Watch yourself. I could still shoot you." He grumbles. You know he's joking. You are truly convinced that behind that hard exterior, Niragi is a sweetheart. You could see it in the little things he did. In the way he would look for you to waddle down the stairs every morning, in the way he glanced at you while you were with Kuina, in the way he always happened to be around your hallway at the end of the night to make sure you got back safe. His excuse was that he just seems to be patrolling the area around that time. "What did you do?"

"I was studying pediatrics." You take a sip of your drink, remembering your life before the Borderlands. You were always the perfect student. You were praised for your talents and intelligence, following the expectations that were always weighing in your life. You enjoyed your field, of course. You wanted to help children and make the word a safer place. However, the academic burnout had been really catching up to you. In a way, you were grateful to be taken to the Borderlands when you were. As horrific as all the death was, at least you had some peace during the visa days.

"That girl will be a doctor, or a lawyer someday. Maybe even an engineer." You recall the endless praise you received from teachers and loved ones. It was always the expectation that everything came naturally to you. "I'll be sure to push her in the right direction. She has too much potential to let it all go to waste."

"Cute." Niragi comments, taking a sip of his coffee. "Suits you." Your cheeks flush at the compliment, and you can't help but let a filly grin grow on your face. Niragi rolls his eyes, smirking and shaking his head. "Don't get used to it. You're still a dork."

"Y/N!" You hear your name being hollered, and quickly turn your head to see who it was, despite already recognizing the voice. It's so early, the sun has barely risen. Most people aren't up at such a time, leaving a sweet privacy between you and Niragi. However, this was interrupted by a very concerned looking Kuina. She had never seen you and Niragi actually talking before.

"Kuina! You're up unusually early. What's up?" You say joyfully, as if you weren't caught having a meal with the one person Kuina had been warning you about since you first arrived at the Beach. She eyes Niragi skeptically before he got the message, throwing his hands up and scoffing as he pushed his chair back and left the table. "Hey, why'd you give him such a dirty look?"

"What are you thinking?!" She whisper-yells, as a certain pierced male is still in earshot. "What are you doing down here with Niragi? You know nobody else is down here, right? He could do something to you!" You chuckle, thinking the idea absurd that Niragi would every do anything to hurt you.

"He's not really as bad as everyone says he is. We were just having breakfast. We do every morning." You explain, continuing to ramble on about your pleasant breakfasts. Kuina bites her lip. Of course, she cares about you and your wellbeing, but she also worries about what she will tell Chishiya.

Chishiya had a plan to steal the cards and use you as a decoy. Although Kuina wasn't entirely comfortable with this, she didn't have much of a choice. Now seeing how close with Niragi you were becoming; She debated if it would be much of a good idea to recruit you for the plan at all. Maybe, it would make you even better for the plan. Maybe upon being caught, Niragi would take it easier on you.

"Kuina? Are you okay?" You stand, taking her hands in yours, rubbing your thumbs over them gently. She blinks a few times, returning to the present moment before nodding. "I'm sorry I've worried you. I know you had concerns about him, but I'm a grown woman. I think I can judge him for myself, and I am super sure he would never do anything to me."

"How sure can you really be about anyone in a place like this?" Kuina sighs at your unrelenting trust in the good of humanity. If there was any good in this place, it's you. "Just be careful, okay? How sure is your super sure?"

"I am one-billion percent sure. I trust him." You nod, hugging her. You've been so grateful for what life in the Borderlands has brough you: A break from the pressure of your old life, Kuina, Chishiya, and Niragi. You trusted these people, your friends, with all your sweet, naive heart.

Little did you know, every single one of them had already been plotting against you.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

"Wow! Two games in a row we get paired together! How lucky is that?" You exclaim, holding up your little piece of paper right beside Niragi's. It wasn't luck. It was rigged to be that way. You were meant to die in a game tonight.

"Uh huh. Luck." Niragi grimaces. You're terrified of what may come, but being in the same game as Niragi brings you a little comfort. After he had so nobly helped you in the last game, you had every bit of confidence that this one would be no different. "Just don't be a nuisance."

"Hey! I never am." You whine, making your way towards the car you're meant to take. Niragi watches you walk, the way your arms sway beside you. No matter what it is you're doing, he finds it alluring, and he begins to hate it.

He had come to the revelation that his fellow militants were right. There was just something about you that made him feel weak. It brought him back to the days when he was ruthlessly bullied and tormented, doing nothing to stop it. Would you be his downfall, and is he doing nothing to stop it? He growls, shaking the thoughts from his mind and following you to the car.

As usual, it was you in the back with two other people. Except this time, they were not lip locked lovers. They were strangers, sitting on either side with you in the middle. The young man beside you couldn't have been any older than fifteen, twiddling his thumbs nervously and staring out the window. You remember how afraid you were during your first game and wondered if this was his first game too.

Finally, after a drive that felt like hours, you arrive at a large building. It's not a tower, like your last game was. It's a gym with two floors, filled with various types of exercise equipment. Some rooms have ropes and rock walls, there's a pool, and the technology in the gym was generally very impressive.

"Must've cost a fortune to get a membership into this place." Someone comments. You make your way to the table with several phones on the table. It looks like one has already been taken, but you don't see anyone else in the room other than the people you made the journey with.

You take your device, holding steady as it scans your face. Two minutes and one second until registration closes. You look around the room, searching for Niragi. He's already eyeing you, but this time he doesn't look away when you spot him as he usually does. He gives you a look of pity, something you'd never seen from him before.

"Are you scared?" You ask, approaching him and hugging yourself. "No matter what the game is, we can get through it. I trust you, and you can trust me." You were terrified of the idea that there could possibly only be one survivor in this game. If it came down to it, the only chance you had in beating Niragi was in a diamonds game.

You stop your train of thought. Why were you already thinking about how you could beat Niragi? The game hadn't even started, and you were already brainstorming how to betray him if you truly had to. You shove those thoughts out of your mind determined to stay loyal to your friend.

"Scared?" He raises an eyebrow, scoffing. He was scared shitless. Not because of the game, but because of what may happen to you. On the one hand, he hoped you would die in this game. You were proving to cause more internal turmoil than you were worth. The other part hoped you would make it out alive, so you could eat breakfast together tomorrow. "If there's anything to be scared of here, it's me."

You giggle, finding his confidence adorable. If this game ended up being a gym related physical challenge, you had no doubt that he would make it out. You were not so confident. You weren't weak by any means, but you definitely weren't the strongest. You recall how badly you wanted to start regularly going to the gym, but you were always so engrossed in your studies.

A chime echoes through the room as the game instructions begin to recite over the speakers. The missing phone and its owner poke out of a shadowy hallway. It's a woman about your age with beautiful long brown hair.

Game: Workout - Seven of Spades

Rules: There will be three stages in this game, testing endurance, balance, and strength. Once a stage is completed, you may not return to that room. In your final challenge, there will be a key waiting for you. Retrieve your key and use it to unlock your door out of the building. Should you attempt to take another player's key or exit through a door which is not yours, you will be eliminated.

Clear Condition: Retrieve the key in the final challenge and unlock your door.

"Players, please make your way to the first room." The voice over the speakers says before going silent once again. A big arrow sign lights up, pointing to a room near the back of the gym. Everyone hesitantly follows the instructions.

The young man you sat near in the car opens the door first. Inside, there are several large balance beams and signs with each person's face, indicating which one each player should go to. You find your face, noticing the weights laid neatly at your feet.

Below the balance beams, which are hoisted nearly six feet in the air, the floor is littered with broken shards of glass. You shiver, dreading what would happen if you were to fall off your beam. There are instructions near each beam, clarifying that each player must make their way across the room on their beams with their weights, which are assigned based on body mass.

Your clock is ticking, and you'd rather not waste time. While some are arguing about trading weights, you pick yours up. They're decently heavy, you won't lie. You feel the tug in your shoulders. With your weights in hand, you begin to make your way across the balance beam. The height is terrifying, and you make mental note to breathe in and out at a healthy pace.

"Look! She's already going!" Someone says, but you don't dare look back. The beam stretched several meters, but you simply try to take it one foot in front of the other. Somehow, you make it to the other side quickly, dropping the weights onto the ground once you reach your destination.

"It's really easy, guys! Just don't panic. We'll finish this game in no time!" You shout back to the other side of the room. "How is this a seven of spades? That was... simple." You say to yourself as you watch the woman with long brown hair step onto her beam.

She had taken her shoes and sweatshirt off in an attempt to make this easier on herself. You could see the panic on her face as she turned back to look at the rest of the group.

"I- I can't! I'm scared of heights!" She squeals. Though you had never met this woman before, you sympathized with her terror, and you called for her to not look back. She took a step forward on the beam, trembling.

You continued to try and reassure the brown-haired woman while others began to cross their beams too. You advised her to watch her breathing and not focus on looking down, but on what was ahead. She had actually managed to make it halfway across the beam, and pride filled your heart.

Unfortunately, good things never last in the Borderlands. The woman looks down, her knees wobbling as she grows panicked once again. She looks back, realizing she is too far on the beam to turn around. You try to console her, but she is too terrified. Her legs buckle underneath her, and she slips off her beam, the weights falling out of her hands as she crashed six feet down into the ground.

The crunch of glass fills the room and the woman begins screaming, blood pouring out from her body as she tried to escape the sharp shards. Wailing and crying, she attempts to crawl the rest of the way. Her palms and knees are reduced to wounded fleshy matter and her throat grows hoarse from her shrieks. This is when you notice the large bloody fragment protruding from her right eye.

You feel as though you're going to vomit, and you turn around, unable to watch. You hear other people shouting, starting to make it across the room and beckoning for the brown-haired woman to endure a little longer. You feel a hand on your shoulder, but you don't dare check who it is. You are too nauseated by the sounds of cracking glass and howling.

"I- I'm here!" The woman's pained voice shouts. "I made it to the end! I'm here-" Her sentence is cut off and you hear the sound of blood splatter. You feared she would be eliminated for not completed the challenge in the way it was intended. How cruel to make her crawl all the way across the room, only to die. You're about to turn and look at how close the dead woman came, but a voice tells you not to.

"Don't look." You had hoped the hand on your shoulder was Niragi's, but instead, it belonged to the young boy you say near in the car. "It's not pretty. Just move on to the next room." He speaks. You nod, your hand tracing the handle of the door to the next room before shoving it open.

Before you, there were pull-up bars positioned over stepping stools. Again, there were instructions to take your place at one of them. You let out a shaky breath and approached one of them. A timer on the wall was stopped at five minutes.

Nobody spoke. Maybe everyone was still processing the gruesome death which had taken place in the last room. There was no celebrating that we'd all make it out. Only mourning for a stranger. You watched the others climb up their stepping stools, and you did the same, gripping onto the bar above your head tightly. You didn't need to be told what to do. You only need to hold on for five minutes.

The challenge begins, and all the stepping stools get lowered into the ground. Trap doors open up beneath everyone. If someone were to let go, they would fall onto the concrete grown of the basement below. Nobody could survive that fall. The timer ticks down tantalizingly slow. You can already feel the burning in your arms. You need something to pass the time.

"Hey." You turn to the young boy, who had taken his spot next to you. "What's your name?" He smiles, seemingly unphased by the deadhang challenge. Underneath the layers of clothes, maybe he actually had some muscle to him. "How old are you?"

"I'm Shinji." He replies politely. On the bar behind Shinji is Niragi, his eyes shut in concentration. "I turned fifteen over the summer. What's your name, Miss?"

"Y/N, and unfortunately I'm not quite as youthful as you." You joke, earning a light chuckle from Shinji. You adjust your hands, glancing at the timer. Four minutes and twelve seconds remaining. "What's your favorite color?"

"Oh, shut up!" Someone growls. It's the man who had been driving the car on the way to this game. "Nobody wants to hear all your boring chatter. Nobody cares about your favorite color, or your name. Just focus on not dying."

Suddenly, there is a mechanical whirring as your bar begins to rotate, your hands nearly slip, but you continuously adjust your grip. The stranger who had been sitting on the other side of you in the car slips, banging her head on the ground before falling into the darkness below. You nearly let out a scream, but you have to focus on the task at hand.

Your pull up bar was now rotating, and you constantly had to adjust your grip while still enduring the burn of keeping yourself on. Three minutes and thirty-nine seconds left. You only hoped there wouldn't be any more surprises during this challenge. Despite the difficultly you were facing now, at least you weren't injured, like in your last game.

You hear another person slip, the crunch of their bones echoing as they crash into the ground. You bite your lip, drawing blood as you attempt to stay stable on your bar. Two minutes and fifty-six seconds.

You don't dare to try and make any conversation now. You are barely able to stay steady as is. One of your arms slips, earning a popping sound in your other shoulder. You scream as pain surges up your arm. You must have dislocated something. You reach back up, attaching both hands to your bar again. Tears prick your eyes, but you can't afford to let go right now. Your life depends on it.

Two minutes and two seconds. More than half the time is already passed. You feel your palms trembling as you try to hang on. Your left arm is now completely numb from the shoulder down. Suddenly, the bars stop rotating. It's a relief, a moment of rest and bliss. Unfortunately, this moment does not last long before they begin to rotate in the other direction. You hear Shinji groaning in pain, and you look towards his direction again.

"Almost there Shinji. Just hang in there a bit longer." You try to sound confident and comforting, but your voice is cracking. He gives you no reply, sweat dripping down his forehead as he desperately tries to keep up with the rotation.

Fifty-five seconds. Five minutes has never felt so long. You hear no struggle or complaints from Niragi or the driver. It makes you regret focusing so hard on your studies rather than being more well-rounded. Maybe if you had regularly gone to the gym a little more, you wouldn't be having such a hard time now.

Three.

Two.

One.

Finally, it's over, and the trap doors beneath you close. You sigh in relief, dropping down to the ground and tumbling on your knees. Shinji is the first to approach you, eyeing your shoulder with a grimace.

"Miss Y/N, your shoulder really doesn't look too good..." He says, crouching to help you up. "I think it's your shoulder blade. It's kind of... Sticking out?" You try to get a good look at your shoulder, but it feels nearly impossible. Your eyes land on Niragi, who has felt incredibly distant during the whole game.

"Niragi!" You shout to him. He pauses, taking a deep breath and begrudgingly walking up to you. "I think my shoulder blade is dislocated. I need your help." You say, looking up at him expectantly. He stands, observing you for a bit before groaning.

"Fine. Turn your ass around." He grumbles. You turn around, waiting for the searing pain that you're about to experience as Niragi pops your shoulder blade back into place. You shriek, but the pain only lasts a moment before relief washes over you. "You've gotta quit your screaming, you banshee." Niragi teases, turning away and trudging into the next room.

You and Shinji follow close behind, being met with a large stairwell going downwards. It makes you uneasy to be going down, especially considering there is only one more challenge before the end of the game. At the end of the stairs is an already open doorway. Niragi and the driver have already gone through.

The next room is a large rock-climbing facility, except it seems the rocks have already been removed from the ragged walls. Instead, there are several long ropes. At the top of the ropes, there are keys. Finally, this is where you're meant to be.

You approach the rope indicated to be yours. Upon a closer look, you realize that this is not a normal rope at all. It's barbed wire, braided up into a thick long cord. This is going to really hurt, but at least your shoulder is fixed for this portion of the game. So much for having no injuries.

There was yet another timer on the wall. Fifteen minutes. This filled you with dread. You would have to climb up this giant barbed wire rope in only fifteen minutes? You spy Shinji inspecting the rope before pressing his finger against it. It slices right into him, a drop of blood pooling on his pointer.

Before you can say anything, a loud beep sounds, and the timer has begun. You gulp, looking in Niragi's direction. He's already begun climbing, having torn some fabric from his shirt and wrapping it around his hands. You steal the idea, advising Shinji to do the same. You tear off part of your clothes, wrapping it around your hands and starting up the rope.

You can still feel your hands being pricked, but at least the spikes aren't digging into you. Shinji is making some good progress. So are you. Maybe everyone will make it to the end without any more death or injuries. Just then, you hear a yelp from your young friend. You look his way, seeing that the piece of fabric around his left hand had come undone. When he notices you looking, he waves the hand in the air.

"It's fine. I've still got the other one! Keep going!" He shouts. You nod, continuing to hoist yourself up the rope. Your hands tingle from the sensation of light pricks over and over again.

You turn back to check on Shinji. He's fallen farther behind, his left hand bloody from climbing. There are eleven minutes left. He can still catch up, right? You try to focus on your climbing, but Shinji's groans in pain keep tearing you away. You want to help him. You wish you could, but there would've been no way for you to reach him.

Your leg slips and a gash is created in your thigh. You hiss in pain as the warm blood begins to drip down your leg. It's always the same leg that happens to end up bleeding in these games. It takes you a moment to readjust, scratching up your limbs as you try to find your position once again. The fabric wrapped around your right hand gets torn, leaving your palm exposed to the barbed wire.

You continue onwards, trying to distance your mind from all the pain you're feeling. It burns like a million papercuts on your skin. Your movements grow sloppier and the wounds on your body grow until you are littered in lacerations.

You're lightheaded, and when you look down, you realize why. The barbed wire is covered in your blood. Not enough to be fatal, but enough to feel dizzy. You feel like you're underwater, and all sounds around you are muffled. There are somehow only four minutes left. Looking up, you see you only half a little more than a meter to go.

You gather all your strength, pulling yourself up further. You're almost there. You can see your key nearly in front of your face. You look back again, searching for any sign of where Shinji is.

He's still very far down, and your heart drops as you realize he likely won't make it in time. Then, you search for Niragi. He must've already made it up, because he was nowhere to be seen. You curse him for leaving you and Shinji behind. The rules clearly stated you could help one another.

"Keep going Shinji! You're nearly there!" You lie, hoping this will motivate him. You reach up to take more of your rope, inching closer and closer to the top. Suddenly, your other arm gives out and you slip down a few more feet. You screech as the wire cuts your face, thighs, arms, and chest. This is not so bad in comparison to falling to your death, but the agony still leaves your brain foggy.

You're getting to the point where you're losing too much blood. Tears fill your eyes as you force yourself to keep going. This is what it's all about, right? Surviving. Living. You need to live to get back home. To see your loved ones again. You need to finish your studies. You need to make it through this game.

You look up, spying Niragi standing on the ledge over you. You gasp, grateful to see that he stuck around. You reach your hand up, well within range for him to pull you to safety. Exhaustion was beginning to set in, and your body ached.

"Niragi!" You choke out his name, your arm outstretched to him while the other barely clung for dear life. "Pull me up!" Yet, you got no response. You didn't feel the warm touch of another hand grabbing yours. Only the cold air around your bloody palm. There was a pause, a hesitance, from the man you thought you could trust. Your sight blurred with tears of fatigue and heartache.

You watched his fuzzy form turn his back you to, walking away without another word.

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elenor222 · 2 months ago

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Pairing: Shuntaro Chishiya × Reader

Fandom: Alice in Borderland

Summary: Chishiya abandons reader and they reunite in the King of Diamonds. Only one leaves the supreme court.

Word count: 1.6k

“Fuck fuck Chishi”

Chishiya groaned hearing his name on your tongue. His mouth sucked harder on your clit. He felt at authority when you let out those squeals of his name. You were a panting mess in his arms. Body arched to match Chishiya’s pace. Cunt gushing for the platinum man.

This was just another day on the beach for both of you. You weren’t exclusive per se, but there was no other for either of you. Things would change for the better in the real world, you hoped. You genuinely liked the man. The small things he did for you, always brushing off your insecurities and making you feel special.

It started when you were placed next to his room, the random Tuesday you arrived. He had only raised an eyebrow. You were wary of these people at first, so welcoming, so normal. But then you were let in on the executive secrets by Chishiya. And you could finally breathe knowing this was no safe haven the hatter proclaimed.

Chishiya had quickly taken a liking to you. You joined the same games and he protected you. And then one day when you went paired together, you had kissed his lips for a brief second with no announcement. Both of you were surprised but nonetheless, he liked it you presumed. Because since that day whenever you were not paired together, you always ended up in his room, gagging and moaning.

Likewise, you were kept safe in the 10 of hearts game. You were with Kuina when Momoka was killed. There was no way for either of you to be the killer. And so you hid where Chishiya told you to, never once coming out. That is until you smelled the smoke rummaging through the building. You were sure they had destroyed what remained of the beach.

Was it even okay to come out even when chishiya hadn’t asked you to? You couldn’t think much as you sprinted across the hallways in a coughing fit in search of the white hood, only to be disappointed. You watched the beach fall to crumbles. You only hoped the rest of your friends were okay.

And then you were left to fend for yourself. Living on scraps. You thought about chishiya often. You could finally see the clear picture; he had used you. Hatter had known you from the real life. He prioritised you, and through you, chishiya got his executive position. You laughed thinking about all the sympathetic looks Arisu and Usagi gave you. They’d known too.

Then the face cards showed up. With no option and time running out, you joined the jack of clubs. It was a bold feat, considering the clubs were group games, but it seemed better than dying of the king of spades’ ammo.

It was a simple game really, you had to climb the ropes until the jack of clubs fell. Which meant, you needn’t need keep to keep scaling, you had to form an alliance to trip the jack.

So that’s what you did, you held onto your rope and started to swing and tear at others. It wasn’t the best strategy, but it worked.

You left with the card on fire.

The closest next game was the king of diamonds, so you rummaged through the city getting to the place. You met Kuina and Arisu on the way, battered and bruised. They looked surprised to see you alive. There was no denying that they thought you couldn’t survive without Chisiya. So, you wished them the best and went ahead with a heavy heart.

The game was in the supreme court. Your eyes twinkled in amusement. You walked in picking up a flower from the garden. You tucked it in your matted hair. Breathing in and taking in the buzz of bees you felt alive in the longest time.

And there he was, shuntaro chishiya sitting in the leather seats, in all his glory. His eyes widened, which you perceived was, like others, surprise to see you alive. He quickly neutralised his face and give you a small wave. It was always like this even back at the beach, you wondered how you could miss the shady laughs he shared with Kuina when they saw you.

You forced a smile at him and took a seat. You were instantly locked in there with a water bowl resting above your head. Would you be poured acid on? You looked up and smirked. Not a ridiculous assumption considering the absurdity of the borderlands.

Kuzuryu, the former no. 3 sat as the king of diamonds. You weren’t particularly fond of this man, but you wouldn’t kill him either. Come to think of it, he and Mira always seemed to disappear in the early mornings. Back then you had assumed it was only an affair.

Chishiya said something to the man which he completely ignored as the rules of the game was explained.

BALANCE SCALE.

‘Oh. Mathematics.’ Was your first thought. You felt a at ease before you heart had quickened its pace.

The game was only clear when there was one remaining. As it would appear, both Chishiya and you, wouldn’t be leaving this room together. however bad the circumstances may be, you had assumed, there would be a truce. Isn’t that how the fairytale always ended?

Round 1.

You think about the calculations, the numbers, and his betrayal. But then none of it makes sense. You can’t win by logic. You need to think what the others were thinking. You look up and lock eyes with chishiya.

You choose 33 and turn your gaze at the other people, the king wins. Chishiya tries to sway him with his words, you get the technique, being the victim to the same. As the rounds go on, much are revealed about the other players. As the points go down, the room fills with tension. Asuma and Yashiro are the first to die in the 10th round.

Round 11.

It leaves the three of you and two new rules.

Chishiya guesses the exact number on round 12. Both you and kuzuryu lose two points. You drop to -7 and kuzuryu to -8. Chishiya was surprisingly at -9. He was playing with a different strategy you assumed. He wanted to test kuzuryu and his thesis of equality. You sympathised with him, sure, but how fair was the game when you didn’t even want to be there?

There were three options for you, choose 0 or 1 and if the other two chose the same, they’d lose all at once. Or if one chose the same as you and the other chose higher or lower, it was sure to cut out the guy who chose the same. You could choose at random too, and let the both guess your game. You weren’t going to die this round, and that was clear. So why not have some fun?

But you had to lose the round for Chishiya to live. Kuzuryu looked deep in thought. He would choose 1, you were sure. And if you chose the same it would bring both of you down two points and the king would be dead. Chishiya and you would be tied at -9. That is to say chishiya would have to choose any number other than 1 to win. You glanced up at chishiya.

He quirked his eyebrow’s understanding your indications. He had always assumed you weren’t this smart and not to mention, you could kill him as of now. You simply gave a discreet nod, and watched the round play itself.

Kuzuryu had done what you expected him to. He looked up you and your breathing stopped for a moment; you wondered if he could see through you whereas he wondered if his balance scale had fallen prey to mortal manipulation again. He closed his eyes and let out a sign. The took off his glasses and let a tear fall. You watched him, emotionless. Chishiya bid his goodbyes to him. The aqua regia fell on the King.

Three burning corpses and two shallow bodies remained.

You grinned at the Cheshire cat as the last rule was added.

“Was any of it even real?” you asked with a smile.

Chishiya looked down. He didn’t know what to say. He knew your birthday and your favourite song. But none of it was enough. It was never going to be. He was mean and you were blind. You were always a pawn to him. Both of you felt free to be released from the bonds that kept your heads clouded. He was moved by Kuzuryu and his past.

He closed his eyes. “I was a doctor” he said with a quaint voice.

You wondered if that was supposed to serve as some kind of closure. If that could determine who deserved to live. He glanced at the timer; he couldn’t be your lover. He’d not come this far to give up.

He chooses a 100 and shows you the pad. You feel the wind knock out of your lungs. You had two minutes on the clock, and there he was again making you think you had a choice. Kuzuryu, that bastard, sure made this game to bring balance.

You let out a chuckle. You chose your birth date.

GAME CLEAR

The robotic voice sang.

“For what’s it worth, I really liked you. I’ll win this for you” Chishiya let a smile slip.

Your lock unclasps. His hands grasp the table. His bowl starts to fill.

“I think, ill win it myself Chisi. Now, how about you give me the hoodie for old times’ sake?”

Authors note: wdym I posted twice in two days without receiving any response??????haha. Requests are open btw.

Likes and reblogs are appreciated. <3

#alice in borderland #chishiya shuntaro #chishiya x reader #arisu ryohei #usagi tsukino #kuina hikari #aguni morizono #× reader

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szallejhscorner · 1 year ago

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King of Diamonds - Part VII

The air was cool around us, and Yukinari shivered. I was pretty sure that it wasn’t the temperature inside the dim building that made her do that. Seven days ago, she had lost her only son during a Hearts game, and this was the second time she’d play for her live.

With the tiny difference that this time, I’d make sure she survived.

“It’ll be okay”, I whispered quietly enough so the other players around us wouldn’t hear. So far, seventeen people had gathered in what used to be the hallway of Nanzan Elementary School, with colorful drawings still hanging on the walls. But I could see that the building had been altered, with additional walls that most likely hadn’t been there before the Borderlands, probably so the area would suit the game better.

Yukinari wrapped her arms tightly around her chest, her gaze wandering from side to side anxiously. She kept her voice down, afraid that it’d be another game turning people against each other. “How could you know?”

“I can’t”, I lied. “But I have a good feeling about this. It helped with my last games as well.”

I knew, of course, that this would be a Six of Spades. Four doors leading to four different trials, ranging from easy-peasy to impossible. Within the last day, I had made sure to memorize every one of them, so I’d be able to choose the easiest door for me and recommend it to Yukinari. Although this was designed to be a single-player game with no restriction for the amount of people joining, I wouldn’t let her do this alone. It was a silent promise I had made to myself three days prior, when we’d first met in the Camp.

Yukinari just shrugged, not at all convinced. “Why didn’t you bring your boyfriend here? The blonde, haughty one?”

Her description of Chishiya made me laugh, a sound so foreign to this atmosphere that several people turned their heads. Not that I cared. “We try not to enter games together”, I explained, trying to stick as close to the truth as possible. In fact, Chishiya had found much more interest in a Ten of Diamonds than this game here, and I would bet anything that he actually enjoyed himself a lot there. Reading the rules on the board had been so confusing to me already, I barely had understood the game at all. It would be heaven for him. “You know better than anyone… There might always be a game leaving only one winner. We don’t want to risk that.”

She nodded, understanding immediately. Did she regret getting into her first game together with her son? If so, she didn’t say. “Clever. It would make me scared, to be honest, not knowing what happens to my love… But I get why you’d do that. Although…”

Pausing for a moment, she ran her hand through her hazel curls, unsure if she should continue. In the end, she decided against it, and I turned around and left her with her own thoughts, while I examined the people around us. It felt so wrong that most of them would probably run into their death, and I’d walk through the door, jump over a few obstacles and continue to live. Then again, I tried to remind myself again and again that I had been there, just like them. I had managed to survive games without knowing the solutions either, and I earned this. Maybe it wasn’t exactly allowed to help someone else through, but if it was true what Myoka had told me, than no one would punish us for manipulating a bit here and there.

I glanced at the phone in my hands, stating that the face recognition had been finished and that the game would start in less than a minute.

One more person hurried through the entrance and quickly grabbed a phone, before the familiar jingle stopped all the hushed conversations around the hallway. Every pair of eyes moved to the phones, and the computer voice begun to explain our challenge for tonight.

GAME: PARCOUR.

DIFFICULTY: SIX OF SPADES.

RULES: CHOOSE A DOOR AND MASTER THE TRIAL TO REACH THE FINISH LINE. IF YOU SUCCEED, IT’LL BE GAME CLEAR.

That was all we were told. Nothing hinted at the fact that the blue door would reveal a challenge that was just impossible, no matter how skilled you were, and that the green door was basically nothing but an empty corridor, easy to walk through.

My wrists begun to itch and I scratched them thoughtfully, remembering the King of Hearts just too well. No matter what, it seemed that this game would haunt me until I took my last breath. But the four doors seemed so familiar, and for a moment I felt as if I was sitting on that electric chair again.

“Breathe”, Yukinari whispered to me, as if I’d be the one who needed the reassurance. “It’s a Six… That’ll be doable, right?”

Her voice was trembling, and I nodded, unable to find my own voice for the moment. I took a deep breath, then another. This was not the King of Hearts. I would not be responsible for other people’s lives, and no one would rely on another person. I would not be punished again for helping my team to win. My heart wouldn’t stop again.

“It will definitely be doable”, I finally answered after clearing my throat. People around us were still discussing which door might be the best, and I watched how the first one, a dark-haired man with dirty clothes, hurried through the red door. Not the empty corridor, but the easy trial. He’d make it if he wasn’t utterly stupid.

Someone else tried to open the same door, but it was locked, most likely because the first player was still in there. Unwilling to wait, he chose the blue door instead. I knew he’d be dead within seconds.

Five more people went through the doors, and I didn’t bother to pay attention to most of them. Instead I focused on Yukinari, the wrinkles in her face more and more noticeable as anxiety around us rose. We didn’t know what happened on the other side of the doors, and we didn’t know who would wait behind the finish line. We did hear screams of horror through the closed doors, though.

Even with my knowledge, it was easy to get more nervous with every person leaving.

Yukinari reached for my hand, and I took it. She was far older than me, she could actually have been my mother, and I assumed that she wanted to see me as some kind of replacement for her son, Masaru. Was this the reason I had the urge to get her through to the end? As some kind of apology to my own family, which I’d never see again?

I shook it off and squeezed her hand, turning her focus to me. “We should go now”, I suggested as only a handful of players remained around us. “What do you think? Green or red, I’d say.”

My statement was met with a questioned look. “Why?”

Shrugging, I took a step towards the doors and tried to sound as casual as possible. “It’s a feeling in my guts. Something I can’t explain… But it helped me through the last games as well. I can’t ask you to trust me, but if I had to bet…”

“Okay. I trust you. So…” Yukinari took a deep breath before letting go of my hand, “I’ll take green and you take red?”

I nodded, glad that she chose the easiest door on her own. Simultaneously, we headed for the doors, giving a last nod to each other before we entered.

The handle of the red door felt slightly wet, probably from sweaty hands that had touched them before, and I wiped my hands on my pants as soon as I was alone in the next room. There had been no images on the board back in the hotel, but clear descriptions of the trials, so it almost felt familiar to look at what stretched out in front of me.

Similar to a children’s playground, a chain bridge was hovering not more than thirty centimeters over the ground, which was filled with only a few centimeters of water. After the bridge, a dozen wide stone slaps leaded to the other side of the room. Easy enough even for small children, with only one little detail to make it harder: the water was charged and would immediately kill me.

I couldn’t prevent a grin from appearing on my face when someone called my name. My face snapped to the right, only to see Yukinari waving to me. Just now I realized that the doors didn’t lead to different hallways but one huge room, and the four trials were parted by nothing but the deadly water.

“Your guts were absolutely right!” Yukinari called to me, and I could see the obvious relief on her face when she hurried to the other side, where all four paths connected to one big platform. A handful of people lingered there already, either sitting on the ground or leaning to the walls. And as my face turned to the left, I found the other players.

Since the water was so shallow, their corpses were easy to make out. Some swam in there, face turned up with horrified expressions, others had fallen into the water face-down. Those were much easier to look at.

The trial to my left was still manageable, but incredibly hard. Almost everything was hanging in the air, forcing the players to use their arms to haul themselves across the distances. The last obstacle was a long balancing pole, and this was where most people had died.

But the hardest trial was nothing but unfair. Over a span of what must have been ten meters, just a single pole reached out of the water. No one of us would have been able to jump that far.

The bridge of my trial swayed from side to side as I stepped on to it, but the railway was made from solid wood and it only took a few seconds to cross it. I was a bit more careful on the slabs, but there was plenty of space to place both my feet on them, and within mere minutes, I made it to the end.

On the very last slab, just as I was about to jump onto the end platform, I heard a frustrated cry from the other side of the room. The next player had opened the blue door and was facing the single pole out of reach. It must have been easy for him to assess the whole situation with so many corpses lying in the water, and a single glance was enough to see his eyes flicker through the room, trying to search for some kind of loop hole.

“Come here”, Yukinari whispered, reaching her hand out for me to take. She pulled me towards her and half-hugged me, her eyes following mine. “We don’t have to watch”, she added, but we both knew that was a lie. Neither of us could look away, and I couldn’t tell if it was the hope for that guy to survive or the morbid fascination of death that forced us to stare.

On the other side, frustration turned into anger. “Don’t look at me like that! Help me!” he shouted, but what could we have done? I knew the doors were locked from this side of the room, so we couldn’t go back and open his. And waiting for another player would be fruitless – the blue door was now locked until he got to the finish line. Hopeless.

Yukinari squeezed my shoulders harder when the guy turned back to his door, took a last breath, ran to the edge of the platform as fast as he could, and jumped. We all held our breaths and time seemed to slow down while he aimed for the pole, crossing a distance I never thought anyone would be able to jump. And then, he actually made it.

Squatting down to balance himself, he landed on the pole, breathing hard and face pulled into a grimace of concentration. I wanted to cheer for him, but he was not finished yet. Instead, he was now facing a much bigger problem: our platform was the same distance, although he had no chance to take a run this time. He frantically searched the air for anything he could hold on to, a loose wire or a piece of wood, but there was nothing. Only the corpses around him in the water, and touching them would be as lethal as touching the water.

While Yukinari finally averted her eyes, I continued to watch as he crouched down even more, pressed his heels into the pole to get as much pressure as possible, and jumped again.

It was clear from the very first second that he wouldn’t make it. Another woman from our side reached out a hand to help him while his eyes widened in panic, knowing he was about to fail, and it was the worst she could have done. In the same moment he took the offered the hand, the guy’s feet touched the surface of the water and his body twisted in shock. The electricity was conducted to the woman’s body as well, and they both fell into the water, dead within seconds.

“Stupid…” someone behind me muttered, and finally, I was able to look away.

We waited for the remaining four players to cross the trials, and none of them chose blue. Only one decided to take the yellow door, and she died at the very first obstacle. The other tree made it, and the exit opened with a feint click.

Half of the players were dead, and not a single word was spoken as we left the elementary school through a back door. I barely noticed how one of the others grabbed the single Six of Spades card that had been placed on a metal table and ran away with it. It didn’t matter who owned the cards; I knew that. The first stage would end as soon as every game type had been cleared at least once. So let him have his little trophy if it made him feel better. Right now, I wasn’t too eager for the face card games to start anyway. I wasn’t ready to lose Chishiya yet.

Yukinari breathed out heavily next to me and pulled me into a tight hug. “We made it! We’re still alive! I can almost believe it. Six more days to live in this rotten apocalypse.” She gave me a wink, adding: “I should always follow your guts. They seem to know what’s best to survive.”

I snorted. Maybe it wasn’t the best choice according to survival to accept Citizenship, but that was something I would never speak out loud in front of a normal player.

“Wanna return to the Camp?” Yukinari asked, but I shook my head. I had done enough to save her life for now.

Kicking away a stone that lay in front of me, I muttered: “I’ll look for Chishiya. He must have finished his game, too.”

“Keeping my fingers crossed that he’s made it through!”

Waving as a goodbye, we parted at the next corner. Yukinari headed for the Camp, where beer and weed would await her, and I tried to remember where I’d find the Arisugawa-no-miya Park, the location of Chishiya’s Diamonds game.

He had told me that the game would take place on a boat, since the park had a quite beautiful lake, and even though it must have took me half an hour to get there – after I’d taken the wrong turn twice – I could see the lights from the boat reflecting on the water surface. It was a beautiful sight with only the stars and moon as the other light sources and the rest of the park being completely dark. I found a bench close to the lake and sat down, kneels pulled to my chest to fight away the chilly night air, and waited.

Once in a while, I’d see shadows walking past the lit windows, but I couldn’t make out any details. It surprised me that the game took that long, and I couldn’t help but wonder if everything went alright. It was a Ten of Diamonds after all, probably the most mentally challenging game of the first stage. And most people were still new to this, so how likely was it for them to succeed?

Then again, Chishiya knew the rules and how to clear it, and he wouldn’t have chosen a game he couldn’t survive. Not if he could work towards becoming the King of Hearts in the new future.

“Oh, Shuntarou…” I muttered, “where have we gotten ourselves into?”

Inevitably I thought about the conversation we’d had with Rikki almost a week prior. She had suggested that I’d lead one of the Clubs games, since the balanced ones seemed to suit me best. I tried to imagine being one of the Face Cards. People would fear me. They would be fascinated by me, like I had been viewing the Face Cards as some kind of alien creatures. Not one of them. A monster, maybe.

I understood why Rikki felt so appealed by becoming the Queen of Spades. Having so much power over others probably felt like a drug, an addiction that made you want it more and more. And most Citizens weren’t afraid of death, at least not any longer. They knew that it’d await them eventually, and they were ready for it. Rikki was ready to be slaughtered like the King of Spades had been killed, but she planned to take hundreds of others down before that happened. The thought repelled me, but I had to acknowledge the strength that came with such a mindset.

And the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I was not ready yet.

Before I could think about this any longer, I noticed the boat had started to move towards the shore. Finally, the game must have come to an end, and I got up as a ramp was led down and the first players started to exit.

Their faces were mostly hidden in the darkness, but the air around them was tense. Spending hours in such a hard game must have been exhausting, and it was easy to imagine the relief of having ten days of rest now.

And then, being the last person to leave the boat, Chishiya strolled towards me with his hands tucked in his pockets, a sly smirk on his face. As soon as he was close enough, I threw myself into his arms and buried my face in the fabric of his hoodie. Chishiya’s hand moved to my hair, ruffling it softly with a chuckle.

“Missed me?”

“You have no idea.”

I took a few seconds to simply stay there before I felt ready to step back, looking into his moonlit face, smug as always. “That must have been hours! What did you do, stall the game to torture the other players?”

“Got me there. Whoops.” His grin grew even wider, and it was still there after I pulled his face to me for a quick kiss.

Reaching for his hand, we both started to walk, and I let Chishiya direct the way since he’d know better where to go. “You’re an asshole, do you know that?”

He squeezed my hand, muttering: “Oh, I’m perfectly aware.”

I almost asked about his game, but somehow the silence felt too comfortable and it would have probably caused me a headache anyway. And I knew that Chishiya wouldn’t be interested in the Six of Spades, since he had briefly scanned the layout back in the hotel and knew everything that was of interest for him.

Instead I listened to the sounds around us, of animals scurrying through the bushes and the shadows of bats hiding the moon for split seconds. The moon was just bright enough to light the path in front of our feet, and when the lasers appeared on the sky this night, I didn’t even flinch. Chishiya noticed, giving me a quick glance with a raised eyebrow, but he remained silent.

He didn’t pull away his hand when we entered the hotel, where I had to blink several times to adjust to the bright lights. Many people were still awake, lots of them just coming back from games, others still eating or talking together, recalling the games of the day.

It made me proud that Chishiya didn’t bother all those people seeing us holding hands as we walked to his room, and no comment came from him when I slipped out of my shoes and jeans and into one of his shirts. No reminder that snoring and excessive cuddling were forbidden here, or that I shouldn’t steal all of his clothes.

I crawled under the blanket, waiting for it to get warm, while I watched Chishiya put off anything but his shirt and boxers. He eventually joined me, and it immediately became much more comfortable, so I couldn’t resist snuggling up to him.

“You didn’t brush your teeth”, he muttered dryly, and his unfazed voice made me laugh.

I kissed his skin and closed my eyes with a smile. “Neither did you.”

#chishiya #alice in borderland #chishiya shuntaro #aib chishiya #shuntaro chishiya #king of diamonds

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