You walked to the base of the game arena and noticed some people already standing there. You wondered why you felt anxious not being with anyone you knew this time. You'd figure it would prove as good motivation for you to get to the end. You also wondered where the others were so you mentally noted to yourself after this game you were going to convince Chishiya to help you search for eveyone else.
:"Y/N?"
You turned around scanning the crowd until your eyes landed on who you think called you. You definitely knew that voice
You:" Kuina?!"
Kuina:" Oh my God your okay!"
She practically ran to you and scooped you into a little hug. Surprisingly it was a really nice hug with just enough warmth. Then again she was alway warm and there was always something extra that intrigued you about her maybe you've just ignored it up until now. She let go of you and looked down at her hands. You tilted your head in confusion at her current movements. She'd never displayed any signs of nervousness or uncomfortablility around you before so what changed?
Kuina:" Listen I uh there's something I wanna tell you"
You admired how the dimedly lit surroundings highlighted her features and how it gave her outfit a certain glow that felt comforting to you. You waited egarly for her to continue her sentence but you noticed her eyes look at something else. When you followed her eyes You saw Arisu and Usagi with a little kid. Kuina observed how your face lit up so she softly smiled behind you and moved in front of you.
Kuina:" We should go with them"
Before she could get to far you grabbed her wrist gently which made her freeze for a second. She whipped her head around looking at your hand on hers and then at your face
You:"What you were going say before?"
Her eyes widended as she glanced to the left at nothing in particular just so she wouldn't have to meet your eyes
Kuina:" Uh.. I'll tell you after the game"
Karma's a bitch isn't it
She never pulled away from your touch instead she used your already conjoined arm to pull you to where Arisu and Usagi were. When Usagi looked to her right and saw you both her eyes lit up and she too engulfed you in a warm hug.
Usagi:" I was so worried I'm glad your okay"
Arisu:" How's Chishiya?"
Even Kuina looked at you quickly with full concern, she almost forgot you two were together and noticed how now you aren't.
You:" He's good, we cleared the jack of hearts not to long ago. I suggested that we slip up to destroy the bosses faster. I came here and he went to the King of diamonds in the arena across from this one."
Everyone nodded in contentment that you both were alive and well. Before any of you could think of asking anything else to say to each other the large flat screen lit up in front of you
Registration closed
Total particitants: 15
Game: Checkmate
Rules: There will be 16 rounds total, each team will get 5 minutes each. When it is your teams turn you are allowed the chance to tag players on the opposing team. To Tag them push the button on the back of there vest. Onced tagged those players are now on the team of there new color during the next round. Each team will have a King. Kings cannot change teams.
You all notice a shadow of a girl in a ponytail on the screen along with 4 other people on the red team
Queen of Spades: I'm the king on my team and I get to pick yours. Now I pick.."
She pointed to the little kid standing in front of Usagi, Kota was his name. Kota looked terrified as everyone looked at him before drawing there attention back to the screen
Team with the most members at the end of the game wins. Game with now commince please put on your vest blue team
You all looked at the vests hanging before scurrying to put it on. You scanned the crowd you had to work with weighting out its pros and cons already. It's great that you would have Arisu, Usagi and Kuina on your team being that you and Kuina were in fact the faster runners here that would be useful. However you could already tell almost all these other people could slow your team down. The sound of a siren could be heard which you figured met the round was beginning
Round 1 Queen team
Five minutes remaining
All you needed to do it not get tagged which would be pretty simple if it was just you alone. You were aware of your capability in doing these type of things with ease but that was mostly because you knew your own strengths. It always annoyed you to work in groups unless that person or group was in fact not useless by your side and Kuina was a great example of that. You didn't have to worry about her and actually she followed you so even when she didnt need to. You couldn't exactly put your finger on it what exactly you were enjoying about this.
Maybe it was because the game felt familiar to you. It actually wasnt anything like Checkmate at all, being more similar to help tag and bulldog which were running games you'd play with your friends before this whole mess of coming to the borderlands.
Then again maybe it was the fact that you never had a chance to play many games with Kuina this closely which made her being in such a close proximity feel so intoxicating but what exactly felt intoxicating? Was it her or the the feeing of being close to her? You thought you would only feel those things around Chishiya so why were similar feelings kicking in now?
You shook your head and tried to ignore such foreign feelings when your goal here was to win. This guy on your team wasnt running very fast so you witnessed him get taged right away from below your feet. It looked like he was having some type of aftershook from being tagged.
Queen of Spades: "The vest shocks you after getting tagged. I probably should have mentioned that."
You noticed her smirk before walking away leaving him on the ground shaking. Shortly you turned your attention to the current announcement
The board has been updated
Red team: 10
Blue team: 6
-Time skip to round 11-
You, Arisu, Usagi and Kuina laied low on the steps while discussing a plan until it was your turn to be the taggers.
Kuina:" Aw man were already loosing people that fast? What are they cheating?"
Arisu:" Alright what should be the plan?"
Usagi:" I promised that kid I won't let him die I have to keep it thats all I know"
You looked down and tried to analyzed everything in front of you. Maybe there was something you weren't seeing at the moment but your train of thought was all over the place.
Usagi" Wait I think I got an idea follow me"
Eveyone turned there attention to her and followed her including you and while you followed you allowed your mind to to keep racing hoping it could pick something else up fast enough to help you. Usagi jumped off the railing and managed to tag 3 people from the red team bringing them back to our side. The three guys sat on the ground defeated and upset having been brought back to their original team.
Salty much
Random guy:" Why would you do that if we stay on the queen team we won't have to die"
Usagi looked at all of guys in disbelief and distress
Usagi:" Is that what you all think? Sure you won't die and you can stay here forever but if we win would could go back to our world. I want to go back."
You watched the guys on the floor look back at Usagi like she was crazy. You looked to your left and walked to the other side of the railing scanning over the darkened sky and the levels below you. There could be people and there red lit vest talking and running around obviously trying to find you all. We didn't have time for a lecture like this. Kuina noticed you walk away, she looked back at Usagi before following you to the railing where she was looking out at the darkness with you. She chewed on her stick while stealing glancing at you
Kuina:" What is it?"
You:" We don't have time for this"
Kuina followed your eyes to see Usagi still talking to those people passionately about giving our world another try but they all just sat there. Were wasting turns and it was stupid to you at least.
You:"The game is called Checkmate when it's really some kind of help tag. There's a strategy to this were not seeing"
Kuina drew her tattention back to you latching on to every word you said
Kuina:" Yea I noticed. So what does that mean?"
You:" Meaning maybe the key to winning is the king itself and were not utilizing the king properly. Think about it the Queen is there king and our king is actually a child which means he could run faster then most the adults here and being that the king is the only one who cannot change teams"
Kuina's face lit up once she caught on to what you were trying to say
Kuina:" Oh! So he can Tag everyone but noone can tag him. Like no tag backs"
You:" Exactly. I'll go and get him stay while you stay with Usagi and Arisu"
You were about to take off until a hand on your wrist paused your movements
This girl loves touching you today
Kuina:" I'm staying with you besides it'll go faster that way"
Before you could protest Kuina took off in front of you so you quickly followed. When you both reached were Kota was standing you explained your idea to him and he nodded egarly. You held his hand until you saw red lights from anyone on the opposing teams in front of you. Once a target was spotted Kota would let go of your hand and take off in front of you followed by you then kuina. The three of you would corner runners so fast they had no where to run, which allowed enough time for Kota to jump and push the buttons on there back showing the familar blue glow the rest of you had.
Kota :" Yay!"
Kuina:" Yes! thats what I'm talking about"
Kuina gave the kid a high five while you looked up to see not only Arisu and Usagi but a whole group of other people on your side now. You had no idea how she managed to convince everyone but you were definitely going to win now.
The board has been updated
Red team: 1
Blue team: 16
Winner blue team
Arisu :" Yes! We did it"
Usagi got on her knees and hugged Kota gently while you smiled warmly at the scene. Everyone else was standing and celebrating until the queen herself showed up.
Qos:" I don't know how you managed to convince everyone"
Yea I said the same thing
Qos:" But congratulations "
Arisu:" Wait! Could you give us some answers now? About where we are?"
The Queen of Spades looked at Arisu and smiled while you all looked at her for some type of explanation
Qos:" You'll figure it out soon enough see you on the other side"
After she said that she jumped off the ledge at the exact same time as the Lazer struck.
So much for closure
You, Usagi Arisu and Kuina walked toward the exit of that game arena. As you were walking out the Queen of Spades blimp collapsed once more signaling another boss level defeated successfully. You were so lost in your head you didn't see exactly were Arisu and Usagi disappeared to, all you knew was you had to check if Chishiya was finished with his game by now. While you walked through the woods like area you felt a hand on your wrist which stopped you in your tracks once agin. Instead of freezing or being caught off gaurd you happily turned around and let out a small laugh
You:" You have to stop grabbing me like this you know"
Kuina smiled and chuckled all while looking down at her hands again. At this point you were more then curious on what she really had to say so you waited for her to continue. Kuina took a long breath before speaking.
Kuina:" I'm sorry if this seems random and maybe I shouldn't be saying it at all but"
You watched her step closer to you even though she was still looking down at her hands
Kuina:" When I was in a game with Arisu and the others we were so close to dying. It felt slow and hopless just sitting there waiting to die"
She paused for a while before continuing and with every word your eyes softened
Kuina:" It made me realize that nothing is promised and if you just let fear keep you from doing something you'll always regret not doing it. Thats why I have to tell you this now so I don't have the regret of not telling you because I was afraid "
You walked closer to her and met her eyes while she looked into yours trying to read your face for a sign that she should stop or continue.
You:" So what are you saying Kuina?"
She leaned in dangerously closer to you and placed both of her hands on your cheeks tilting your head up ever so slightly to look at you better. You watched her eyes flicker between your lips and your eyes before smilling.
Kuina:" I like you"