The wind rustled through your hair, blowing the dirty pieces of litter on the ground against the rough concrete road of the Shibuya Crossing. Once a bustling atmosphere filled with people of all walks of life— shopping mothers, working employees, freelancers and even a homeless Arisu with his part-time bartender Karube and IT worker Chota, the place was now no different from a stranded island in the middle of the ocean.
"None of the games have started yet," Arisu said. He looked around the area surreptitiously.
"Maybe we still have some time to prepare before it does," Usagi assumed.
"Or they forgot to push the big red start button." Chishiya joked teasingly.
"They didn't even tell us about the rules for this one." Kuina shared.
"Well, we're facing the face card games, so we can't simply assume that they're just going to tell us exactly what to do. For all you know, a demon might come chasing us and all we've got to do is kill him." You leaned against a traffic light pole, scanning the area for anything suspicious.
The air stiffened, and some sounds could be heard from afar, but it was hard to determine what it was. You stood up to face the source of the sound, and found a few cars driving toward you. It was the cars that belonged to the beach. They came to a stop near you, and people came out one by one.
"What are you guys doing here? Completed any games yet?" You were the first to ask.
"No, but there are rumors that the next stage is starting soon, according to the blimps-"
BANG!
A loud gunshot fired through the air, killing the man that was talking to you. A woman in a yellow jacket stood rooted to the spot, before getting shot down too. More people got shot to the ground, facing their deaths unexpectedly. You reacted quickly, grabbing Akira's arm and running for your life. "The fuck are you standing there for? Run!" You snapped them into the senses.
"That thing's an anti-tank rifle." Chishiya stated.
A man attempted to hide behind a car, only for it to blow up and resulting in his utter death. "Hiding behind a car is useless," he watched people futilely try to cover themselves with the surrounding cars. Could they just have gotten inside and drove off? How foolish.
"Yuki-san, you sure are good at predicting things like a prophet!" Arisu hollered, running behind a thick wall. You could hear that the sound of the gunshots had changed to an assault rifle.
"Guys, wait here!" You instructed, before letting go of Akira's hand and running off by yourself.
"Yuki!" You heard Kuina call out for you, only to be held back by Chishiya.
"Stop, or you'll put yourself at risk too. Can't you see she's doing this to save us all?" Chishiya pulled her back.
You hopped onto the cars, jumping from one to another with light legs, distracting the man who was trying to kill you. You grabbed a street sign that had fallen off onto the ground, and used it as a shield to protect you from all the rubble as he continued firing his rifle.
Spinning it around, you whacked away all the other flying objects coming towards you. After all of the spades games that you had completed and physical brawls with other people, including Aguni in which resulted in a draw and a loss, you assumed that there was nobody who could match you for spades games besides Aguni, who was now dead.
However, you were utterly wrong. Turns out, there was someone who could just be the perfect matchup with you for the ultimate battle? Could this possibly be the Jack, or even the King of spades?
You swung around a pole and landed in front of your Ferrari. With trembling butter fingers, you unlocked the door and quickly drove towards Akira, who was dashing towards your car. The man with his assault rifle had shot through some of the glass and the boot of the car, barely missing your head. "Okay, now let's go save the others!" You stepped on the accelerator so hard it could fall off purely by your immense strength.
First, you avoided the other cars that were in the way, driving recklessly on a curb. Soon, you found Chishiya. "SHUNTARO, GET IN!" You pulled him by his hoodie to the front seat next to you. You continued speeding, before being met with familiar faces in another car. You could never mistaken a stunning, skinny woman and a familiar blue cap.
"TATTA, ANN! USAGI, ARISU AND KUINA ARE THAT WAY! LET'S GO SAVE THEM!" You called out, feeling relieved that those two were still alive.
Above you all was the blimp with the flag that showed the King of spades. That must have been him! But, how could he just appear on a massacre ruthlessly like that? Does his game not have rules and was the goal just to eliminate him?
Even so, it would not be an easy task to complete. He was shooting the players in all directions, not leaving an opening to attack him. Maybe, instead of simply playing games among the players ourselves, we were against a much bigger enemy, and were playing against them? Were the other games similar to that as well?
Once you reached the three people whom you were looking for, Ann quickly shouted for them to get inside the car before the murderer could kill them. You noticed the King of spades running in your direction, so you were fast to zoom off. "I need to distract him in some way, there's too many people here to lose," you thought, sweat running down your forehead. The three people quickly huddled into Ann's car, barely evading the bomb that was thrown on the ground.
The king of spades got into a random car and was on your tail. Why was he not chasing Ann? Did he want to kill you first or something? Was his target one of you? Or did the game end if he killed either one of you?
Now was not the time to ask questions. He was hot on your heels and was gradually catching up to you, and you had to act quick before you ended up like all the people who got shot. "Sis, hurry up! He's so close to us!" Akira was looking from behind, occasionally ducking down to dodge the incoming bullets.
"Gosh, I have to think fast!" You made a sharp turn, going into the opposite direction of where Ann was driving.
"Okay, now that worrying about the five of them is out of the picture, I've got to do something to save these two helpless boys! Firstly, one of them has a healing injured leg that has not sufficient medication for it to heal properly, and the other one? Spades is completely not his game!"
"Guys, I know what to do. Listen carefully to what I'm about to say." You instructed the both of them.
"Shuntaro, do you know how to drive?" You asked him.
"Well, I passed the written test—"
"That's more than enough! Here, take over. I'll fight off the King of spades. You two go ahead, I promise I'll catch up to you!" You demanded.
Chishiya awkwardly placed his legs on top of your thighs, resting his feet on the accelerator and the brake. You lifted up your body and stuck your legs out of the window, using your forearm strength to pull yourself up to the top of the car.
"Both of you, get away from here immediately! I promise I'll find you again!" You demanded. Akira screamed for you, but it was too late and you were away from the car. He stuck his head out of the car, reaching his hand out for you desperately.
You pulled out your machine guns and began firing at his car, turning his attention away from the two of them and instead to you. You twisted and yanked off the safety pin of your bomb and threw it towards the car. He reacted fast, jumping out of his car before he could explode into pieces.
He began firing at you, you running in the opposite direction of the gunshots and hurling your daggers towards him, which he dodged, except one which stabbed into his left arm. He was quick to pull it out of his skin, running towards you with vigor.
Out of impulse, you threw a smoke bomb on the ground, running towards the side. You kept your machine guns and instead took out your dual double-edged scythes, preparing for some intense close combat. Some of the rubble scratched and bruised you on your body, but that was the least of your worries at that moment.
Once he ran out of the smoke, you launched yourself towards him, raising your scythes in the air. He utilized one of your daggers and swung it at you. "He's not only strong, but has battle IQ! SHIT!" You blocked it with your scythe, attempting to give him a roundhouse kick.
However, he grabbed your leg and twisted it, making you fall to the ground. You shouted out of the pain, landing on a car. You faced up towards him, backing away.
"What the fuck, dude? What's with that aggressive fighting style? Are you a veteran soldier or a mercenary or something? Are you even human?" You spoke to him. "You're also possibly from the SDF! Are the borderlands full of people like you? I'd decline the invitation to join your game! Please spare me oh my go—"
He gave you no response and instead pounced on you. You bent both of your knees and kicked him upwards, him landing not too far away behind you. You took this opportunity and ran away, using more smoke bombs before turning a sharp corner around a building to hide yourself from him. You hid behind another corner, waiting to see his shadow. "This way, even if he happens to find me, I can get away before he catches up to me with my shuttle run speed!"
He stood up, wasting no time in looking for you. When he walked down the alley in search of you, you noticed his shadow nearing you, getting increasingly larger. But, by the time he had walked past you, you had circled around the building.
"I've never had a fight as good as yours in a very long time. Looks like I've found a strong foe who can kill me. Let's meet up again and have a real fight later, little girl," he blurted. He sprinted back to where he once fought you, and drove back.
You dashed off, trying your best to locate Akira. You had forgotten to put your device on him to locate him as you were too hasty. "Damn it!" You cursed under your breath. You continued walking around the area, before stopping at a supermarket. "Since I can't find them, might as well stop by for the night."
By then, you were all alone, only able to fend for yourself. Nobody was there to accompany you or help you to complete games. You considered which game you should play, before deciding on the Jack of spades game.
It had the lowest difficulty, and was the best suit for you. You were fully armed from head to toe with guns, daggers, bombs and machine guns, putting you in an advantage. Additionally, you were alone, so a clubs game was out of the question, and you did not have anybody you could trust around you, canceling out hearts games. You might have been street-smart, but you were not ready to compete against an intelligent mathematician who could probably calculate when you were going to die.
You ate sufficient food for the night, before going to sleep. "Should I just wait everything out? I still have a pretty long time on my visa still. No, there's a chance I might bump into one of them in the games. There are a total of 12 face card games, so the chances of meeting them in a game are high. Besides, now that I'm alone, I don't have to fight and protect Akira anymore, so I can go all out. If I wait my time out, my friends might die and leave the games uncompleted."
You slept by yourself, feeling lonely not because you were by yourself, but because you were missing Chishiya and your younger brother. "I must find them, I must!"
Laying down on your mattress you had found in aisle 5 of the supermarket, you were unable to sleep, knowing that the two people on your mind might have been risking their lives in a game when you were relaxing in a supermarket.
"Now, what games could they possibly play? Chishiya's specialty is diamonds games, whilst Akira is good at clubs and a little spades. However, in these mind games Chishiya specializes in, there is usually only one winner. I think they'll probably split up to complete games separately, or of course, wait your visa out. But, if you wait it out, more players will die and eventually you'll be the last person, most likely," You muttered softly.
"There's a chance that Akira might wait his visa out while Chishiya partakes in hearts or diamonds games. The Jack of hearts and King of diamonds is a bit further up the road, but diamonds are not my specialty, and I don't exactly have anybody I can trust. I'll travel further to the west and participate in the Jack of spades, then I'll continue with the Jack of clubs, and take it slowly, starting with the easiest of games." You decided intelligently.
You soon drifted off to sleep, still thinking about the both of them.
Unbeknownst to you, the two boys who were staying in an abandoned home were also thinking about you.
"Just where are you, Akira and Shuntaro/Yuki?"