==____== 1st POV ==___==
We were all in the crowded lobby now. I felt sick of how squished I was, plus my anxiety was rising, but Usagi was with me.
The 10 of hearts game was finally starting as we waited.
"Are you okay?", I asked.
"Yes, Niragi didn't do to much damage. I might've hurt him more." I smiled, but that soon faded away...
"Where is my brother?"
She didn't say a word and I began to panic.
"You don't know?"
"No I don't, but I promise, we will find him. Are you okay??"
"No, im worried."
"I mean how badly you've gotten injured. I saw how Niragi treated you. Maybe Mira did something worse to-"
"No. No. Nothing more happened.
We watched the people surrounding something, so we tried our best to squeeze ourselves to the front, accidentally bumping into Tatta. In the middle was a girl with a knife stuck in her chest.
"Momoka!"
A girl in yellow ran up to the dead body with fear on her face.
[Game]
Witch hunt
The evil witch who took the girl's life is hiding among you. The witch role is not limited to women.
"Among us?", Usagi questioned looking at me. I gulped, I'm afraid of heart games.
[Game]
You clear the game if you find the witch and burn them in the Fire of Judgment.
Time limit: 2 hours.
"There's a fire burning at the back of the building!", a man shouted. I glanced at Mira who was standing on the opposite side of us.
"Find the one who murdered Momoka, then burn them in Fire of Judgment," Ann repeated, but Bitchface came unexpectadly behind her. "A witch hunt? This sounds interesting."
"Hey," he teased us. He wasn't done yet. He wanted more, but for now we have to focus on the game and my brother. "You seem to be just fine, Y/n..." He snarled as he looked at Mira. She noticed but ignored him.
Not even a minute in and the accusing began and it got worse when Bitchface pointed a gun at momoka's friend, Asahi. "Is she the witch?" "It's not me!" "We'll know once we throw you in the fire." He demanded his minions to drag her to the fire, but I knew how close they were. It couldn't be. Usagi and Mira decided to stop them, I followed.
"Let go of Asahi," Mira said with a calm voice. "Where were you guys, and what were you doing? Can you prove it? Just say it?", Usagi added.
"Both of us were having a good time in the same room, right?" I felt like throwing up everytime he said something.
"Everyone will take turns reporting what they're been doing in the past hour," I spoke up, though people were pointing out Ann and her bloody tissue.
"Don't get the wrong idea."
"Now, this is getting interesting. Could she be the witch-!?"
"You're wrong! This is Hatter's blood! I was checking Hatter's body. That was when blood got on it."
"His body?", a random girl asked. The truth was out. "Hatter was murdered." The room was getting loud again, questioning if we hid other things aswell.
"Calm down," Kuzuryu yelled and Ann showed us the bullet. "This bullet was stuck inside Hatter's body. The firing marks align with the firearms we have here. This means someone at the Beach killed Hatter."
"Hey. Could it be that the witch killed Hatter? I mean, doesn't that sound plausible given the timing of the events? The witch must be among them!" The girl that pointed that out got pierced from the back by a katana... blood was dripping from her mouth as she fell onto the floor.
"How troublesome... let's burn everyone we find," Last boss suggested. Aguni came from the back of the crowd and informed: "If someone among us is the witch, then everyone, other than the militant members is the witch."
"Who's the witch, come forward. If nobody does, then I'll throw everyone into the fire." Niragi cheered loudly and used his riffle to make everybody panic. The screams were so incredibly loud that I just wanted to collap. I held my hands over my ears and I watched as my vision got blurry. My heart was beating faster and faster and I started getting dizzy. I felt Mira's hand on my shoulder and I began to calm down, stopping the urge to fight back my panic attack, letting the symptoms flow in as it slowly stopped, faster than usual. "Go find your brother." I took a deep breath and nodded. I grabbed the last phone on the table and searched with Usagi and Asahi.
"Quick, hide inside this room," Usagi said to Asahi. "Where are you going?!"
"We have to search for someone."
"Please bring me along! It's either game over or death for me if I wait here."
I turned to hear a fimiliar voice, it's Tatta with another person. "Let me help you. You and Arisu helped me in a game before."
I looked at Usagi, then back at the two boys. "Help us find Arisu."
The gunshots came nearer and we decided to search all together, leaving no one behind. We called his name and went through door to door until we stumbled upon a man in the bathroom holding a gun. "Are you all right?"
"I can't do this," he whispered. I remember his face, he was one of the militants. I kneeled down and asked him quietly. "Where is Arisu?"
"In the main building."
The fire alarm was ringing loudly. Shit, please no... I could see the smoke already, they wanted to lure us out. "Smoke? Is there a fire?" Usagi shushed Tatta while she tried to listen to something. "Help! Somebody, help!" We both rushed to the door, but the door was locked. "Arisu!"
At the worst possible time 2 militants arrived and began shooting without any guilt. They were following me and Usagi who climbed out of the window to jump onto another balcony. My mind was blank when I did the same. I was clearly not destined for this and almost fell to my death, the cold wind hitting my body. Usagi caught me by my arm.
One of the men shot at us and almost missed. Tatta pulled him back in and we made it onto the other side. "FUCK!", I yelped with my bleeding leg. It didn't do too much, he barely destroyed any vital things or veins. Luckily just some skin, but it still hurted as hell. We entered the room with Arisu on the floor and immediately tried to free him. "Y/n.. Usagi..."
The others came storming into the room after I untied the last rope. "Thank you," Arisu smiled softly. "I hate to break it to you, but we only have 30 minutes left." The phone was handed to him. "Just explain the rules to me." We began explaining everything one by one. He laid his phone on the bed and looked in distress like all of us. "This is the worst rule ever. But just like those taggers from the tag game who were made to participate in the game with rules of their own. I'm sure it's the same this time. The witch has to kill the girl to start the game and survive until the end of the time limit. In other words, the witch clears the game if everyone here gets a Game Over or gets struck by the lasers."
We accused the militants... Aguni, niragi or last boss, but this mindset got scrapped by Arisus good thinking. "This is 10 of hearts. It's not just a physical game. I know that since I've cleared a Hearts game before. Heart games are utterly wicked. You toy with people's feelings, betray and kill each other. They're designed so that you can't win without feelings discusted. If the militants win this way, there will not be any conflict."
"So, what is it?"
"Something's weird, what could it be? If I were the witch, what would I do?"
He thought for a very long time, scratching his head. His face slightly lit up. "No, I shoudn't be thinking like the witch. I should be thinking like the game master!"
"Game master?
"Don't you think this seems tailor-made for the players, for this place and for this time? After Hatter was killed, Momoka was murdered. Someone who knows the ins and outs at the Beach made this game after calculating the timing. Their deaths did not just occur at the same time by chance. The game master had likely been waiting for this moment.
I neither thought like this, nor knew Arisu could do that. It's perfectly logical.
"Then who is the witch?", Asahi wondered. "Hatter's death was made known after Momoka died. Those who knew of Hatter's death were only the militants and the executive members," I said.
"But the game master might have known of Hatter's death somehow."
"Then all of the Beach members are suspects."
"When I passed by the lobby one hour before the game started, Momoka's body wasn't there yet," Tatta told us.
"So sombody moved her body during that time frame."
"There's no point in asking since the witch can lie. The question is... why did the game start now?"
I raised an eyebrow at Arisu.
"Why did they wait for Hatter's death before they started the game? It was to throw the Beach into a state of chaos. If that was the case, if I eas the game master..."
He stood up and took a long pause of silence before talking again. Soemthing clicked.
"I think I know who the witch is." We all sprinted to the lobby, holding Arisu, so he doesn't fall. I on the other hand delt with the pain on my leg, it wasn't so bad anymore and the bleeding stopped.
"Let's end this game!"
"I was confined by you guys... the entire time, even when the murder occured. I'm sure you know. I couldn't have been the witch. If you aren't the witch, then there's no need to kill me. Please cooperate with me and search for the witch!" Aguni approached without a word and hit him in his face multiple times. "Arisu!", I shouted in shock, not knowing what to do. Usagi tried stopping Aguni, but there was no chance.
"Now I know. The reason why you attacked Arisu, even though he's the only one with an alibi. That's because you are the witch!", she framed.
"You... are you the witch?", a player asked.
"Yes. I'm the witch," Aguni told with no emotion as the militants pointed their guns at him. He dropped his gun and even though he walked over to them, nobody shot. "Shoot me. Do it!" "Shoot him"
"Aguni is not the witch. This is a ten of hearts game! A game that toys with people's feelings! It's not a game where you win by killing Aguni!.. You're not the witch. So why?" I held Arisu close to me, my hand on his shoulder. He was bleeding like crazy.
"That's because you have another motive. The one you killed wasn't Momoka. It was Hatter." The guns were lowered and even I was confused. "I found out after I saw your eyes. It was as if you had given up all hope. Those eyes. It was the same as mine that day. Those eyes after I killed my friends." Chota, Karube. Everywhere he was, they were there too.
"You're not dumb. Yet you wanted to kill everyone right from the start. That's not like you! You must have had another motive in mind, Ever since I came to the Beach, I thought it was strange. If you had these many firearms, the militants would have gained control over the Beach a long time ago. Yet that didn't happen until now. In reality, you were not in conflict with Hatter at all. Didn't you both actually help each other? You wanted to make sure that dangerous people like Niragi don't go on a rampage. You tried to hold them back."
"You... weren't you and Hatter friends in this reality? Then, why did you kill him? For some reason, you couldn't forgive Hatter for what he did. You wanted to stop Hatter and his crazy ways. You wanted your best friend to regain his senses." Aguni was thinking for a long time. "What do you know?", he was different now, more sadness in his voice. Yet he still punched Arisu, trying to ignore everything. Usagi, Tatta and I launched ourselves at him, but he shook us off like some twigs, opening my wound again.
"What would you..."
"I was also someone who killed my friends. I understand the pain in your eyes. You killed your friend and you wanted to kill everyone at the Beach, because they were the ones who made your friend go crazy. Your broken feelings, The game master made use of them. This is whd this is a hearts game! "Shut up!" He got thrown to the ground, he's gettinf weaker, if this continues, Arisu will die.
"If that's true, then Aguni just wanted to kill everyone regardless of the game?", a man in a blue robe said. "You're joking." "And we went along with that?" "Just who is the witch?" "I know who it is. The identity of the witch. You can always see the game master's characteristics in a game. In heart games, it makes a fool out of everyone. Maybe, there really was a way to end the game without killing everyone. A solution where no one has to die."
He stood up from the ground.
"There's a witch candidate that makes." Arisu slowly raised his hand, he was pointing at Momoka. "It possible. It is possible, if the witch is Momoka herself."
"What a joke! I am the witch!", Aguni yelled. "You guys want to kill me, right?!" He punched everyone in his way. "Aguni is trying to take everyone down with him!"
"You guys made him crazy!" The frustrated looks on his face could purely kill someone with that just itself. Asahi wanted to distract the others so we could bring the body to the fire of judgment. We didn't know how she would do it at first. Asahi ran into the middle of the room and shouted loud and clearly so everyone could hear. "Listen up everyone! I am the dealer of this game!" The laser shot right through her head. No one dared to talk nor make any noise at all. We all just stared.
"It was a reverse grip!" Ann walked into the lobby with Kuina being her helping hand. She held up the knife. "Fingerprints with a reverse grip were found on the knife. This means Momoka grabbed the knife herself and stabbed it through her own chest. She's the witch." "Were they the game masters?" "The other girl even said she was the dealer." "They might have been controlled by someone else too."
We calmed Aguni's nerves, but it was too late. Fire was spreading everywhere and gunshots were fired again. This time just by a single person. He came in with a torch in his hand. "In the first place, I should have just burned down the Beach with the fire of judgment." "Niragi." "Niragi?" How is he still alive, he looks halfdead.
"With this, I'll clear the game!" He threw the torch and shot innocent people. Hitting me twice in my arm twice when I tried to run away with Arisu. "Y/n!", my brother and the others screamed. I was in pain. They layed me to the side to fight Niragi. I coudln't do anything but watch and scream in pain. I noticed Mira not to be found anywhere. Did she die in the fire or perhaps got shot? I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to lose her or anyone in my heart!
"You guys... I'll kill all of you!" He pulled the trigger and I squinted my eyes. Arisu... When I fully opened them back up I saw Aguni in between them and running up to Niragi. He pulled him back into the fire.
[Game]
Three minutes remaining
"There's no time!"
Everyone headed out, carrying Momoka's body. Arisu stayed at last and came over to me. "How are you feeling?" I noticed the giant blood puddle on my left and I smiled. "Not so good."
"Can you walk?" The bandage of my leg was ripped off and blood was leaking out of there too.
"I don't think so, Arisu."
"Fine, get on me, piggy back ride."
"Huh? You're quite heavily hurt aswell!"
"C'mon! You mean I'm just gonna leave you there too rot? Hop on."
I jumped on his back and we slowly walked out. "What's with that phone?" "It was Momoka's."
We gathered outside and threw her body into the fire, all we could do now is watch the Beach burn down. "Everyone died..." Tatta realised and dropped crying onto his knees. Usagi glared at the ex-militants. "Those guys, I can't forgive them." Arisu then stopped her from doing something "They killed all our comrades!" "We're still alive," Arisu countered and I guess that was all that mattered.
((--- some time later ---))
All of our wounds were fully patched up. My three bullet holes are starting to heal. Arisu pulled out Momoka's phone and watched the recordings with me and Usagi. It was then revealed that they helped the game master. Both of them walked into an underground subway and entered a pincode that unlocked a door. "Is this the dealer's base?", Arisu commented.
After a long hallway multiple giant rooms with hundreds of tv screens were shown. On them were us... strangers.... every single player. "Place your bets!", a guy said excitedly. Are we just something to entertain people? The dealers were laughing and betting on us. "So they are the game masters."
Later that day we followed the same way they did, but the door was strangely open already. When we entered, the screens weren't on, nobody was there, at least nobody alive. 2 people came from the other side. Kuina and Chishiya.
"As expected from someone I have high hopes for." "We meet again." "Thanks to you guys, I have all the numbered playing cards with me. Thank you."
"How did you discover this place?"
Chishiya pulled out a small piece of paper.
"It took me some time to realise that this is actually the route map of a subway station." To me it looked like a drawing of a kid. "What happens when we collect all the playing cards? I thought I would know the answer after I came here. But there's only one thing I discovered." "They are not game masters," Arisu answered for him.
"Right. Judging from the fact that they were all killed after our victory. They're humans like us and on top of that, there's someone above them." "Just who could it be?", Usagi questioned. "Who knows? They might be aliens... or even God himself."
All of the screens turned on and we were all staring at the empty white nothingness until something popped up. Special urgent broadcast.
"What the hell is this?", I asked. "Congratulations to all players," said by a woman in black, everything being blurred. "What?"
"Interesting."
The face unblurred and I could feel my heart being shot multiple times. "Mira," me and Chishiya said simultaneously.
"With the exeption of the face card games, all of you have cleared all the numbers games thus far and emerged the victors. A sweet victory you've gasped by sacrifising numerous lives. I wonder how many of your comrades have died? Try remembering those that were shot by a gun. That girl you burnt alive. Those struck with the lasrrs and those that downed. Those whose heads were blown off. Those comrades of yours. The despair you felt so far and those dying moments that you can never forget." A screen displayed Karube's death. I haven't seen or heard about how he died yet. He died... right in front of Arisu.
"I'm extremely touched! All of you players, we would like to give you a present.
"Are you returning us the the original world?", Kuina put a question to it.
"There will be new games! Let's play games together. You'll fight for face cards!"
"New games?"
"We still got many more wonderful games prepared for all of you, so look forward to it!"
"This woman... is she the game master?"
"I'd rather see an alien appear on the screen," Kuina admitted
"Me too," I agreed, but with a diffetent reason. I held my tears back, because I thought I had found the one. Oh, how wrong I was. I simply stood there with my shattered soul.
"The next stage will commence tomorrow at noon."