The Queen of Spades (promise this is good)

Chapter 58-An encounter

Resting my head on my palm, I was beginning to feel drowsy from all of that thinking and exploring. Maybe...there was no way out and that I was forever stuck in this hellhole. Whatever, I needed more information, and immediately. It seemed like there was only one way to get more intel and hopefully find a trustworthy person: play more games.

With that, I felt myself falling into a deep sleep, my head bonking onto the table that lay idle below me.

———————-

The very next day, a cooling blow of wind caused me to wake up from my dream. Raising my head up from a pool of saliva next to my mouth, I wiped it away with my hand, before I took a glance at my surroundings. Still in the same place.

Although I found my mother a nuisance, it would very much satisfy me to be woken up by her nagging and her smacking of my head with a broomstick, which she used as a walking cane. I had not known just how much I appreciated her until now, that I was alone and left to rot in this hellish place called the borderlands. All I wanted was just to leave this world and return back to my home.

Feeling my stomach grumble, I felt like I could eat a whole cow for my breakfast. Realizing that I did not have a proper meal since lunch the previous day, I got up from my bed, getting ready to prepare myself a sandwich. It was only then that I found out that all the food, including items like preserved vegetables, were all spoiled. 

With a sigh, I left my apartment with a hungry stomach, looking for any source of food for me to eat, until I realised that I could eat canned food, my only hope of filling my rumbling tummy. 

With a fresh set of my school uniform, I adjusted the belt around my waist, gripping onto the pocketknife I brought along for protection warily. Walking along the streets of the suburban part of Tokyo, I searched around for a sight of anything that could possibly have a sufficient amount of food for me to stock up on. 

(Just wondering, anybody wanna make a guess how many games I, or Kayami Yuki, have/has invented? Heheh :D I might give a shoutout to the reader who can guess correctly.)

Just then, I found a small convenience stall just a few blocks ahead of me. Rushing towards it like a cheetah sprinting towards its prey, I busted the locked door open with my knife. Looking around, I spotted the packet food aisle and made a beeline towards it. Spotting a packet of Pringles, I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed it. 

Heading towards the table with a few cans of food, my packet of chips and a bottle of coke in my hands, I sat down at the table nearest to the window and ate my 'breakfast'. 

The only sounds that I could hear in the area that was silent as the dead, was the crunching of chips and the sound of litter being blown across the roads of Tokyo. Gulping down the last bit of my coke, I let out a burp before disposing of the empty can that was filled with abalones previously into the trash bin. 

Heading out, I felt rather bored, and decided to take a stroll along the streets of Shinjuku, in search of any clues that could lead to just what in the world I was currently living in. All of a sudden, I heard a loud explosion from a few yards away. Dashing right towards the source of the sound, I followed a pungent trail of smoke, which led me towards an extravagant mansion. 

Its double doors had multiple vines crawling on top of it, with beautiful multi-coloured flowers blooming on them. Although I could not see the interior of the mansion, I could hear the chatter of people and the sound of footsteps.

That was when I felt the cold, metal barrel of a gun being pointed behind my head. "Who are you, trespassing on our grounds?" A deep, baritone male voice asked me from behind. Not moving a muscle on my body, I shakily replied with quivering lips, "H-Haru Ak-Akira. I-I heard a-an explosion." My stutter always got worse when i felt nervous, or agitated.