You headed to the lobby of the beach, hoping that your Ferrari was not brunt by the ember flames that was demolishing the beach to ashes. You combed around the area, checking around for the Ferrari. It was important that you had a convenient mode of transport to easily escape games or danger quickly when needed.
"Here!" Akira raised his hand. You headed towards him, taking out your keys from his bag and unlocking the car. "Get in before the fire melts us!" You pulled his hoodie into the car. You started the car, not bothering to put on your seatbelt at that point. You stepped on the accelerator and starting driving outside.
There was some burning wooden boards on the ground, but you just braced yourselves and busted through them bravely. You lowered the window at the rooftop, pulling out a grenade. You twisted the safety pin and pulled it off the grenade. You stuck your head out of the window and tossed the grenade behind you into the beach to finish off anybody else who was in there, Aguni and Niraigi included.
You drove faster, not wanting to receive the impact of the grenade. After a few seconds, the grenade went off, blowing the whole beach up. The rooftop fell off the beach, falling right behind the car you two were in. "Woohoo! We're out of the beach!" You were enjoying yourself for once.
Slowly, the car came to a stop and you found Chishiya and Kuina standing outside of the beach, awaiting for your expected arrival. Opening the door, you came out of the car and greeted them.
"Alright! So, where's the face card games? Must we do something to trigger them or do we wait for the day out visas expire?" You played with your machine gun. "Also, Chishiya, have you pinpointed what exactly that drawing could mean from the five of spades game? I suggest that it's a map of somewhere in Tokyo we need to go to encounter the face card games, but it's just a hypothesis."
"For now, I still don't know what it is yet, but now that we're out of the beach's control, we have much more freedom to explore around the area." Chishiya replied. Kuina had a confused look on her face, not knowing what drawing you were referring to. After some explanation, she gave you a determined nod and agreed to help in decoding it.
"Okay, okay. Before we get burnt to ashes, let's leave this place and find somewhere to stay for now before we embark on our adventure!" You invited them into your Ferrari. "Geez, you really are extra. Going back into the beach and not saving anyone, but instead getting back your expensive car and blowing up the beach, you're so cool, Yuki-chan!" Kuina had a good laugh.
You got the engines ready and headed off, leaving all the other people outside the beach to mourn about all the other people's deaths. "Sis, you're not going back for Tatta? Or Arisu and Usagi? Not even Ann?" Akira turned his head to you with concern on his face.
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(Meanwhile, on the other side of the beach...)
Arisu received a wave of shock when he saw a small grenade blow the entire beach up, making the then torn down walls burst into mere shreds.
"That explosion..." Ann skeptically squinted her eyes and shaded them with her hand, trying to get a closer look at the scene.
"...is Yuki's bomb!" Usagi exclaimed, exasperated after the long and by far the most intense battle of wits against everybody in the beach.
Arisu stood up from his seat on a patch of grass, saying, "This means that she's still alive! She wasn't burnt down by the fire!"
He could hear several people applauding, and some sighs of relief around the area. Some people were even cheering and whistling for you, previously afraid that the fire would have been the cause of your unknown death.
"Yuki's still alive. She probably went out with her brother, Chishiya and Kuina!" Tatta assumed, rushing to Arisu's side and patting his shoulder, jumping up and down in excitement. Already having mourned hundreds of deaths that he blamed himself for, Tatta was glad to have one of his closest comrades survive yet another death game.
"Well, wherever they are, we should follow them. Her and Chishiya seem to have crucial information that even we, the executives, don't know of. If anybody knows how to get out of here, or what's next after this, it's them. I suggest we join them somehow," Ann analysed, resting her sunglasses atop her forehead.
Some of the militants' devotees were whispering in batches about you, and the fate of the other militants. So far, the only one whose life was confirmed was you. Last boss was deceased, that was for sure. As for Niragi and Aguni, their deaths were yet to be determined, left a mystery among the remaining survivors.
Everybody around the area was glad that you were still alive after the plight you were being put in, but your whereabouts were unknown. It was only true that you were off to unlock the next level of this enigmatic game, and only you had the key to it, which was the little note that you had lucked on after the five of spades.
Turns out, that little details did matter, and collecting as many objects as possible turned out to be useful. Arisu was slowly connecting all the dots of the borderlands, the odd games, the disappearance of the other people of Tokyo, the now forgotten Beach, and the duo that conquered the borderlands together.
"Well, we'll see the both of them in the next level of the game. I just know it," Arisu assured the others, with willpower.
—————-
"They'll be fine by themselves. They might not be the strongest or the smartest, but they have this survival instinct that I truly envy. You'll see them when the face card games appear, I just know it. Do you miss them already?" You sighed. Your brother, after all, was turning 13 soon, so he had a lot of things he still needed to learn and a lot of maturing to do.
Soon, you stopped by when you saw your hideout which was extremely nearby Shibuya crossing. "Hikari-san, you don't know it yet, but this is my hideout where I used to live before all this crap happened. Welcome!" You unlocked the huge lock tied to the door and opened it.
It felt good to be in your underground hideout again, it felt like home. Well, as long as you were with your brother, and now, Chishiya and Kuina, it was home to you. You could have a house, but it did not mean that you had a home. To put it in simple terms, when you are with the people that are important in your life, you are home, no matter where you are.
You switched on your battery-operated lights, since electricity did not work in the borderlands. You walked around the hideout, feeling nostalgic already. It had been an entire month since you last stepped into your hideout, and you missed it already.
On your work table, you found an old picture of you and Akira. You two were at an actual beach, and you two were smiling with ecstasy. It was taken on Akira's 12th birthday. You had promised to save up enough money to get you two to a beach and have a luxurious life for a day. Although he told you that you did not have to do anything special for him, you insisted on getting him something on his birthday.
You picked it up and swept off the dust collecting on it, a tear running down your pale cheek. You missed the days where you were living together safely, not having to worry about wining some life and death games everyday. "I'm going to change first, then I'll cook some dinner!" You called out from your room.
You decided on wearing a black blouse that had long sleeves, which were rolled up for your convenience. As for your bottoms, you wore a high low hem skirt that reached until your knee level. You wore a pair of shorts underneath, of course. You equipped your machine guns on your holster that was attached to your belt. Your smoke bombs and grenades were around your belt. Your daggers were in your pockets, the handles sticking out.
You wore back your original pair of boots, tired of wearing sandals that made you trip and fall over during a game, almost costing you your life.
You stepped out of the room. Kuina was admiring your photographs around the house, squealing whilst exclaiming, "How cute! Oooo! This is interesting!" However, she was making sure not to touch anything she was not supposed to, and she put everything back where she took them from.
Somehow, Chishiya found your hidden weapons room, filled with your different inventions and weapons inside. Akira was standing outside the room, not trusting Chishiya one bit. With his arms akimbo, Akira was observing Chishiya with a sneer, making sure he was not going to do anything out of the ordinary with your stuff.
"Ah, so you found my inventions room? What're you doing, a lot of these are failures or just some ideas, not much to see here!" You summarized whatever was in the room.
"These inventions are amazing. Not to mention your ideas for future inventions are also good. There sure is a lot to see in here, Yuki." Chishiya commented, staring at a prosthetic leg you had made. It was for your father, but he was in the afterlife.
He picked up one of your swords, coincidentally, it was your sharpest and most sturdy one. It could cut down some wood cleanly, although if the angle was not perfect it would get chipped and would need sharpening and further conditioning.
You walked into the kitchen. You began by chopping up some vegetables that you had picked out from outside and cooked some meat from a rabbit you had killed. Along with that, you cooked some ramen and added seasoning as well as some soy sauce. You included some chopped carrots into your meal.
You split it into four bowls, giving your brother the biggest serving of all despite him being the youngest. You brought it out, the delicious aroma of the food in the air. Kuina clapped her hands, flattering you. "The best chef in the borderlands has cooked us a tasty meal! Thank you for the food, and thank you for bringing me such a nice friend and cook into this hell!" You blushed in embarrassment, sitting on your seat speechlessly.
"Yes, she makes the best food here! Not even Ann's cooking beats hers!" Akira added on to your mortification.
"Her food tastes decent, even though there is a shortage of supplies and food sources here, it's not bad," Chishiya stated his opinion.
"Get eating before the food gets cold already! I'm about to faint from the flattery!" You spluttered, covering your face out of embarrassment from your two friends and younger brother who only encouraged them to continue with the compliments.
The four of you gobbled your food down like a pack of hungry wolves. You did not get the chance to eat for a very long time, and you were starving like a deserted man on a stranded island. "Say, Akira," you began, "Your 13th birthday is coming in 3 days. Is there anything in particular that I could do for you or give you?"
"Come on, Sis, you don't have to do anything! You surviving and helping me to heal my injured ankle is more than enough for me! Really! Think about yourself sometimes, you've never done anything on your birthday and you still insist on buying me something for mine!" Akira waved it off, not wanting anything other than to be by your side, be it in the afterlife or on earth.
"Fine, if you say so," you put your hands up in defeat. It was true. You only cared about Akira instead of yourself. You personally wanted to ask Chishiya how Akira's leg was doing, but you knew that he did not want to. Of all the occupations in the world, a doctor was the last thing you expected Chishiya to be. Even a professional gambler would be more believable than a doctor.
Chishiya observed you two sharing love for each other with a tinge of jealousy in his eyes. He truly wanted to love people and care for others like normal humans do, but he could not seem to actually care for someone.
At the same time, he silently lusted for you to treat him that affectionately as well, though he could not admit it out to you, he quietly craved for your love to him. Staring at your hairpin neatly pierced into your braids, he wondered if you actually could sense his signals sent to you.
He recalled your words, "When someone treats you well or helps you, you just want to express your gratitude towards them. That way, you build a strong bond with them and you'll have each other's backs! Love is a weird thing, even without saying it, you can express it with small deeds!"
However, the borderlands had taught him something. That all in all, every human is equivalent to each other. He liked that nobody got an advantage or got a special way out of the games. In the borderlands, every human was equal and had the same odds of winning a game.
In a screwed up world where they put people with more wealth above people with more need, he had learnt not to trust anybody. He found that people only helped others so that they would owe them something in return.
But, after meeting you, he soon discovered that not all people thought the same way. Astoundingly, you showed genuine care for Chishiya, having helped him and saving his life just as many times as he had saved yours. Both of you wished you had a better past, but instead of pushing it away, you accepted it and moved on with more knowledge with you. "Keep the ones you can trust close to you," he once said.
"Shuntaro, have you found any leads on what this could be?" You pointed towards the pice of paper on the table.
"Yes. It looks similar to the map of this subway station to the north of Shibuya crossing. Here, take a look," he showed you a map of the different train stations. You stayed next to him, scrutinizing every detail of it.
"This could be where all our answers are! We should head there next morning, ASAP! Maybe the face card games are held there!" You exclaimed, looking forward to the new games.
(Ah, tomorrow is the last day of 2022! Happy new year everybody! I wish you well in 2023, a new year that awaits new adventures for each and every one of us! Gosh, I have to deal with studies, ballet and piano, not to mention I have some competitions and extra classes too. Gosh, I hope I'll have time to write this or will finish writing before hell comes! I love y'all so much!)