NOTE BEFORE YOU READ:
(this chapter takes place in episode 6 - in that episode Niragi almost does something horrible to Usagi which I have chosen not to write BUT the only thing I am writing in from that part is when Usagi bites Niragi's tongue piercing out - I didn't want to write *that* scene because of how horrible it is, the only thing you'll read is how he grabs her and tries to bring her to the room, but she is never brought in and that scene never happens - hope this makes sense!)
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Hana woke up once the sun hit her eyelids. She opened them and instantly blocked her eyes with her arm.
A groan escaped her as she sat up in bed. There was no one in the room besides her - Kuina must've left before she got up.
Hana walked over to the washroom and took a glance in the mirror. Her hair was a little bit messy, so she tried her best to fix it with her hands.
She looked tired - her eyebags were starting to get noticeable, and there was still tried up blood on parts of her body.
A sigh left her mouth as she decided to leave the room all together and try to find Arisu, or at least someone she recognized.
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Hana sat at one of the tablestl that was in a shaded area - her arm rested on the table while her head rested on her hand.
It seemed like it was a bit early but people were still drinking and swimming.
"Hey." Hana looked ahead when she heard Arisu's voice.
He sat down across from her. Arisu seemed like he was hungover and tired - his hair was messy, and he just looked.. out of it?
"Hey. You look like you had fun last night." Hana chuckled.
Arisu rubbed his eyes before resting his head and arms on the table. "Hatter made me drink- so I did. I drank too much."
"Did he introduce you to any girls?" Hana teased, a smile growing on her face.
"Wha- no!" Arisu suddenly raised his head up for a moment but set it back down when he noticed Hana's smirk.
Hana laughed again and reached over to gently hold his arm. "Just teasing you, Arisu."
Arisu noticed the gentle touch from Hana - he didn't mind it - so he didn't say anything.
"What did you do last night?" Arisu asked.
"Uh, I got a drink from the bar and then went to sleep. Kuina let me stay in her room. Said this place is filled with a bunch of creeps."
"I believe her." Arisu added. "Especially that Niragi guy - I don't like the way he grabbed you."
Hana's eyes softened when she looked Arisu (despite his head being down). "I'll stay away for him. Well, I'll try."
Arisu finally raised his head again, his arm still making contact with Hana's hand.
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The two walked around once more since the area was really large in general.
People talked to them and spoke about rumors. "I heard the games are only in Tokyo."
"Maybe the person who controls the games is someone we know, wouldn't that be shocking?"
"What do you think happened?"
Arisu and Hana both stared at the last (drunk) girl who asked them a question.
"I.. have no idea. I guess we'll find out one day, right?" Hana answered before turning around and leaving with Arisu.
"All of this talk is just.. depressing." Hana said once her and Arisu were far enough away from the girl.
"Perhaps... our only hope really lies in the playing cards." Arisu responded.
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Arisu and Hana eventually exited the building full of people, and made their way outside to where there weren't too many others.
The cool air blew through Hana's hair - which she had to keep tucking behind her ear.
Arisu suddenly stopped when he noticed two girls up on a balcony. "Let's ask them if they know anything else about this place."
He walked up closer. "Hey! Can I ask you two something?"
The girls, who either thought he was trying to do something weird or made them nervous, looked at him before running off. "I wasn't trying to hit on you!" Arisu shouted after them.
He sighed and turned around to see Hana's (not so well hidden) smile. "Why are you smiling at me?"
She shook her head, the smile still not going away. "Nothing. Should I head to the annex now? I can try to find us some supplies that we might need late-"
Her sentence was cut off when the sounds of gunshots could be heard from nearby. Arisu and Hana exchanged a look before they carefully snuck up behind a wall to investigate what the noise was.
They both saw some men walking off after shutting a garbage bin closed.
The two made their way to it after the men were out of view - when Arisu opened it, they were met with a stomach-churning smell - dead bodies. "Oh, fuck."
"Death to traitors." Chishiya's voice rang through both of their ears - they noticed him and Kuina up on a balcony.
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Chishiya and Kuina brought the two to a nearby roof - it was scary being up this high, but also being interrogated by strangers could be scarier.
"Arisu. Hana. You two seem to have gathered a lot of information." Chishiya spoke as he looked between the two. "What do you have planned?"
"Nothing." Arisu answered rather quickly.
Chishiya let out a breathy laugh. "I'll cut to the chase - How will you live in this world that's full of despair?"
Hana took a small step forward. "We just want some answers to our questions. The one that's behind all of this. The one that killed my brother and best friend."
Hana felt a comforting hand touch her back, a small smile formed across her face. "We need to survive and get back to the real world." Arisu added to the conversation. "If I can't then she will. That's the reason I'm alive - she's the reason."
She looked down at her feet after what Arisu said - she was getting a bit emotional. He cared about her this much? It made her stomach fill with butterflies, or something like that at least.
"What a tearjerker." Chishiya said, wiping his fake tear from his eye. "Your dream.. it's cool, it really is, but it's not practical at all."
"You'll have to win every game, become Number one, but that's impossible." Kuina spoke.
"It has nothing to do with you guys. We think you have potential." Chishiya added.
"What?"
"That's why we came to meet you."
"What do you mean?" Hana asked.
"What if I said there's a way to change the status quo all at once?"
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Hatter is trying to keep the militants in check, but it's only a matter of time before they retaliate. There's no point in staying here.
The words from Chishiya bounced off the walls of Hana's mind as her and Arisu walked down the hall. Arisu seemed off - perhaps he was focused on what Hana was thinking.
He stopped for a moment, though, and looked out the window. "Hana, we should talk about this."
"I agree." She responded. "Are we really going to team up with them? I mean, do you want to?"
Arisu sighed, turning around to face his friend. "We need to get out of here, we really do. Or we at least need more answers before we leave this place."
Hana ran a hand through her hair - the stress was getting to her. "I want to do this and I want answers too, but - we need to be careful of the guards. I mean, you saw those guys with guns before, right? There are probably more like that - or with bigger guns, like the one Niragi has."
Arisu nodded. "Exactly. But, we can do this. I believe in you and I somewhat believe in me. We just need to be stealthy and everything."
"I hope I can trust them." Hana sighed.
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Arisu and Hana both paced down the hall when they heard the call from Chishiya over the radio.
The plan was Arisu would go with Chishiya while Hana would hang back until the plan was ready to go.
"Hey. We didn't call you guys over here." Niragi stood tall in front of the two.
"I called him over." Chishiya pushed past Niragi.
"Hey, don't go gathering your own people." Niragi grumbled.
"There's something important he has to hear. Come on." Chishiya signaled Arisu to follow him.
Before they went in, Arisu looked at Hana, giving her one last look until it was time for the plan to go down. "See you later."
Hana nodded before he went in.
Niragi looked down on her - a smirk painted across his face. "We'll keep your little friend safe, don't worry, honey."
If looks could kill then Niragi would be dead from Hana's eyes - she scoffed. "If you hurt him, you'll regret it. Trust me."
"Is that a threat?" Niragi laughed.
"Take it as whatever you want, Niragi." Hana made a face towards Niragi before walking away - she heard a laugh but paid no attention to it.
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After getting away from Niragi, Hana decided to sit at the bar and wait. Just wait everything out.
It was worrying - just waiting like this for God knows how long.
"Can I buy you a drink?" A man sat down beside Hana, his voice stunk from the alcohol he was consuming.
"Uhm, I'm good! I'm not that much of a day-drinker." Hana lied, smiling as she got up to leave.
The man mumbled something but Hana ignored it and instead went to go - somewhere? She wasn't exactly sure but it was anywhere but the bar.
She wondered what Arisu and Chishiya were doing in the main room of the beach - it sounded like something serious was going on, which worried her, but hopefully it was nothing too bad.
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And so the plan was in action - Arisu came back and found Hana waiting in one of the halls.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Hana asked when Arisu came up to her.
"Hatter is dead. Aguni's the new leader now." Arisu explained.
Hana's mouth hung open the tiniest bit from the news. "Oh, well - I can't tell if that's better or worse than Hatter."
"Are you ready for this?" Arisu asked, regarding the plan, Hana sighed.
"I'm ready but - we need to be careful with this, okay?"
"I know." Arisu said, "Everything will be okay. I promise."
As Arisu was about to walk off, Hana gently grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Arisu- wait."
Arisu hummed in confusion as he looked back at Hana who looked worried. "What's wrong?"
The feelings all rushed to her when he made eye contact with her. "I.. just want you to be safe, that's all." Those feelings went away when her mouth opened - why couldn't she say them?
Arisu flashed her a caring smile before engulfing her into a hug - it was a warm one. The kind you want when you're upset and just need something or someone to cling on to. They never really hugged, though, to save themselves from the teasing comments of Karube and Chota back when the world was normal.
Hana felt herself relax in Arisu's touch. His head rested upon hers while his hands were secured tightly around her back - as if she was a vault that needed to be kept safe.
The hug broke apart after a few moments - Arisu looked at Hana again, that same longing look in his eyes as the caring smile on his face remained the same. "You be safe too, okay?"
Hana smiled as she made finger-guns towards Arisu. "I always am."
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Arisu eventually left as Hana waited in the hall nearby to try and distract anyone who came close to the room that he was in.
Now, if it was someone who wasn't apart of the main group here then she would be fine, but if it was someone like Niragi? Then it might be difficult to do so.
Minutes almost felt like hours as she waited for him to be finished - Chishiya was also helping but he was just on the radio, talking to Arisu and telling him what to do.
"Hello Hana." Niragi's sudden voice made Hana jump a bit - oh fuck.
"Oh, Hi Niragi." Hana cleared her throat, looking up at the man.
"Why are you here all alone? Did your little boyfriend leave you?" He put his hand on the wall to hold himself up, that stupid smirk appearing on his face.
Hana scoffed, the annoyance really getting to her. "First of all: we are just friends - second, I don't know where he is right now. I was actually looking for him."
His head tilted and his facial expression changed the tiniest bit. "Is that so? Because from what I head - you two were planning to steal something from the Beach?"
Her heart felt as if it fell out of her chest - how the fuck did he know what was going on?
"That's a lie. I don't know who made that up but they obviously have something against Arisu and I - you should really check the people you bring into this plac-"
He slammed the bottom of his gun on the wall. "Don't fucking lie to me, Hana." Niragi stood up straight as he went over to Hana and whispered in her ear. "You and your little friend, Arisu, will really regret it."
Hana got an uncomfortable feeling as Niragi was too close for comfort - but her eyes focused on the people walking up to them - Aguni and some of the other members from the Beach. Uh oh.
"But, you wait here, okay? We'll bring you in once we deal with him." Niragi laughed.
"Wait- don't hurt him please! Just-" Her mouth was soon covered by one of the members of the beach - a blond man to be specific.
"Just shut up." He spoke in her ear.
She watched as Niragi, Aguni and some of the others went in to go after Arisu - but what hurt the most was seeing Chishiya walk behind them.
He made eye contact with her, the familiar smile on his face as he walked by and waved.
She wanted to scream but the barrier of the man's had stopped her from doing so.
"Come on." The man took his hand off of her mouth and instead grabbed her arm, another man grabbing her right one to help.
"I'll fucking get back at you guys- just wait!" Hana said to them as they dragged her in - all they did was laugh in response.
Arisu over at Hana once she was in the room. His face completely changed when seeing her in this state. He felt anger, guilt and sadness all at once. "Hana! Get off of her!"
Niragi quickly took his gun as Arisu ran foward and hit him against the head with it, making him fall back on the floor.
"Arisu!" Hana cried, still trying to get out of the strong hold from the men.
Niragi continued to hit and kick Arisu's body - Hana continued to cry out.
"Stop moving, bitch!" One of the men kicked at Hana's leg as she almost got out, making her wobble a bit.
"Are you sleepy already?" Niragi smirked, as he looked down at Arisu - his body not moving.
Tears brimmed Hana's eyes as she saw the sight in front of her. "Fucking stop!"
Niragi walked over to Hana the tip of the gun pointed towards her chin. "You don't want your wounds to be worse, right Hana?"
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The result of Hana screaming at Niragi to stopped made him grab her roughly by the arm, and being brought to him room - or at least attempting to bring her to his room.
Hana tried hitting him with her free hand but he didn't care, this didn't hurt him, nothing did apparently. "Get your fucking hands off of me, Niragi."
He pushed her back forcefully on the opened doorframe - his face getting closer to hers for an intimidating effect. "Don't be rude to me, Hana. What did I ever do to you?"
"You hurt my friend - my best friend. Now look what you're doing to me, you fucking creep."
His smile stayed on his stupid face the whole time - it was impossible to make him frown, at least for Hana it was, but it was also scary.
"You're really, really gonna regret what you've done, Hana." His voice was a whisper and he got closer.
As he went to kiss her, Hana quickly and aggressively bit his lip to the point where it bled. "Oh, fuck you!"
Hana smirked. "You've got a little something on your lip, Niragi."
His hold on her was still tight so she quickly decided to knee him in a place where you wouldn't want to be kneed.
He let out another yell as she ran off.
As she booked it she didn't even look back. The scary thought of what he would've done to her frightened her - why were people so evil?
Hana made her way down the stairs and noticed the group of people that gathered around a table.
She pushed past some and noticed the number of phones on the table - a game was starting.
She took a phone for her and one for Arisu - she had to find him and they had to leave this place.
The phone dinged for everyone: the game was about to explain what it was and all the rules about it.
Hana's facial expression hardened when she saw the game - Who is the Witch?
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thank you for reading another chapter!
this one was kinda difficult to write because of a lot of things but i hope it's good enough !
we can see arisu x hana relationship slightly growing :D i promise yall will get more near the end <3
also... s1 of this book is almost done??? omg??? i started this back in June 2022 and now it's January 2023 -
I didn't think this book would ever get 7k reads??? (Thank u sm omg) and also 300 votes???
thank u sm for the support again i rlly rlly appreciate it :)
qotd: if you could have one person on your team who would you have - kuina or ann?
- b