Roulette // Chishiya x Banda // alice in borderland

Fourteen

Alone, once again.

It's been a while, he thought, far enough from the forest to finally stop running. It felt good, to some extent - after all he tried to escape Banda days ago and being alone gave him a missed feeling of freedom.

However, for the most part Chishiya felt absolutely sick and terrible, against his will. The look on Banda's face when he left him there, injured... Chishiya couldn't figure it out. Wasn't Banda an egoist? Didn't he intend on hurting others as long as it kept him alive and entertained?

He risked his life but for what? Wasn't it more beneficial to let Chishiya get caught by Niragi? And shouldn't Chishiya be glad he eventually got rid of the killer and could finally wander freely?

It doesn't feel good at all.

It was a little too much for just one day - to find your friend's remaining necklace and lose the only ally in Borderland he had left. Chishiya started worrying he wouldn't find a game to participate in on time either.

Lucky enough for him, the abandoned mall was a good guess; that was where he noticed people starting to gather anyway. Chishiya came up to the group, still keeping an understandable distance.

Wait.

"Arisu?"

Chishiya blinked a few times, not sure if one of the players happened to be his friend. The boy turned around and quickly rushed to Chishiya, his eyes glowing.

"Chishiya! I seriously thought you were dead!" he said, and right then Chishiya remembered how much he'd missed him. Arisu looked like something bad happened to him earlier, fresh bruises on his face and arms, but other than that he looked simply happy to see him.

"I thought I was dead too" Chishiya replied calmly.

"So did you meet Kuina?" Arisu tilted his head. "She went to search for you two days ago. I hoped you guys would stumble into each other by now."

Fuck. Chishiya started to have this weird, sickening feeling back again. Was she dead? Was she dead because of him?

"I haven't seen her but I found this. It belonged to her I'm pretty sure." Chishiya reached to his pocket and pulled out a small necklace. Arisu's smile disappeared.

"Yeah..."

They stared at the necklace for a minute, both deeply in thoughts. They didn't want to share their concerns out loud but the silence could easily say it all.

"I hope she's alright" Arisu whispered after a while. Chishiya just nodded and looked around the abandoned place.

"So this game" he said. "What is it this time?"

"A type of matching game I think. There's a lot of cards scattered around the main hall, all upside down. I guess we're supposed to find cards that match each other but with how many there is, and with so few players it's gonna take us the entire day."

Chishiya was glad the game didn't require any physical strength; he was exhausted. Several wounds, including the shoulder one were still constantly reminding him of their presence. Although come to think of that, the shoulder was surprisingly close to being healed - considering how well Banda took care of it.

Banda...

"So did you come here with others?" Chishiya asked, trying to recognize more faces among the crowd.

"No, it's just me. Usagi stayed with Ann, their visas are still fine" Arisu replied and looked at Chishiya curious. "You?"

"Alone again."