Hope Always Dies Last | Chishiya [English]

Holding on to the afterglow

"Wounds heal with time, they close up, become inconspicuous."

Did they really?

"There's nothing you can't do about a wound."

What if it still hurt?

What about internal wounds that might never heal? What about wounds that were reopened with every thought?

Player 'Nohara Neiru' recognized

How could a wound heal if it was being poked at over and over again?

I let my eyes wander over the new location.

A school building, it was relatively large and branched out, at least that's what the escape route plan had shown me. The perfect conditions for a game of spades.

There were not many participants yet, only four, which was not surprising, because I had arrived here very early. I still had two visa days. Two days had passed since the incident with that Niragi, since then I hadn't seen him and his strange troupe.

I had noticed how lightly dressed his followers had been. As in my game of 4 of spades, the young woman had been walking around in swimwear, which in retrospect amazed me quite a bit. Who would go swimming in a place like that before or after games?

The beeping made me look towards the entrance. A young man entered the location and walked to the phones before leaning against the white wall. I eyed him a bit. He looked relatively simple-minded, which to me could be good, as well as bad. But I found his clothing much more striking: he was wearing a shirt, but I was pretty sure his leg covering consisted of a pair of swimming trunks.

That's right, a bathing suit, the pattern was there again.

My gaze remained glued to the blue bracelet that was around his wrist.

73

Weren't those locker keys? I could have sworn I knew those bracelets from the Aqua Dome that was here in Tokyo. But maybe I was wrong.

Come to think of it, though, I've seen bracelets like that before, yes, in every game! I had never really noticed it, but there had always been those there who had carried such a bracelet.

My curiosity once again took over and left me no peace.

However, I was relieved of my unpleasant feeling at that moment when it beeped again and this time three people passed the laser barrier.

The sight brought beads of sweat to my forehead. Three men, one looked like an ex-military man. The other two behind him were also not completely untrained and looked professional. Definitely not beginners!

The bald muscleman let his gaze wander as well. However, I had the feeling that his eyes stayed glued to me longer than I would have liked. I dismissed the thought, however, when I saw the bracelets that adorned their wrists. The looks they gave the fourth young man on the wall also seemed familiar. They all knew each other, without a doubt.

Two minutes until the end of registration!

The cheerful female voice seemed to break the silence and I felt uncomfortable as I pressed myself even closer to the wall. Who knows, maybe I was just looking for some mental support to take my mind off things a bit. I was nervous, more than I would have liked. Two more participants arrived as time was almost up.

Registration is completed!

The game begins now.

Number of participants: 11

Game: Fire Devil

Difficulty: Diamonds 6

Diamonds? I didn't expect that, I would have guessed spades! But what did Diamonds mean again?