𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒖𝒑, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎
𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈
𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒖𝒑, 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏
♧.♤.♡.♢
I awoke with an immense pain in the chest. My eyelids felt glued together as I struggled to open them in vain. My head was throbbing and I was feeling so confused. I tried to swallow my saliva but my throat felt so dry. I was starting to panic
'Hey, hey, hey! Shhh, you're safe, you're alright!' I hear a feminine voice say. 'Here' she says helping me sit down and put something cold in front of my mouth. I quickly realize it's water and chuck it down in a second. The cold and wet feeling of the water calms me down as I relax
'We were scared you might never wake up. You were out for a little over two days...' She says softly and I try opening my eyes again, this time succeeding
'Usagi?' I ask confused as to why she is here. I look around, shelves with food and utensils surrounding us, we were in a store. 'What happened?' I ask genuinely lost. Last time we were still at the Beach playing the Ten of Hearts game and Niragi- Niragi was actually still alive! He then- he- I- I remember moving on instinct, feeling a huge pain in my chest, the same spot I feel the pain now. Then I remember falling to the ground, looking- into Chishiya's eyes...
'We beat the game, well, you did actually, before getting shot in the chest. I don't know how, or who even patches you up. But if they hadn't, you wouldn't be breathing right now'. She explains. 'We found you outside of the Beach, laying down near a tree, unconscious
I got shot, yeah, that I had figured. But how did I manage to survive? How did I even manage to get out of the building?
I look at where the bullet supposedly hit, a huge compress with medical tape holds onto my skin. I gently tear it off and look a the wound frowning. It's still fresh, but perfectly executed, way too perfect to be a random person who knew how to stitch. I don't even know if anyone could do such a thing as extracting a bullet lodged in a such complex area. Which means... It could only be him
Usagi takes me out of my thoughts as she hands me a clean compress to change it and clean the wound. As I do so I hear footsteps approaching and move in a protective way, ready
'Oh my-! You're awake!' Arisu's face comes into vision and I sight in relief
'yeah, apparently' I say sarcastically. I look at both of them, they seemed relieved, yet I could see a glint of fear in their eyes. 'What happened, after the last game? Did it work? Where are the others?'
'Calm down ok? It's- I don't know' Arisu tells me
I frown and look at him. 'What do you mean you don't know?' I say raising my voice he backs away a little scared of what I might do -as if I could even move because of the wound. 'Arisu, what- is- going on?'
He looks at Usagi, their eyes talking in pure silence. He takes a deep breath and sits down. 'I don't think the game is over yet. But during the last few nights, no game arena had been on. We are still in the Borderland so... We think the game masters still have things planned for us, and we are trying to find it out'. He explains before looking down. 'As for the others. Most of the beach people got killed during the Ten of Hearts. The survivors went on their own way, they left I don't know where'
I nod, taking all the information in. But even with all those answers, I wasn't satisfied, he didn't answer what I was the most wondering about...
'We also found this'. He says handing me a phone. 'It's Momoka's phone', he goes through the applications and clicks on a video
The video plays and Momoka and her friend were alone in the city, but not like I was. It seems like they really were alone, like they were some of the first ones to arrive here. They are walking down a metro station as she explains the role of dealers. Arriving at a door, she types a code and it clicks open. More hallways, more stairs, many turns, and narrow passways, until- They walk in a room full of screens and monitors. People controlling it and watching the games taking place, laughing and betting on the players as if they were some kind of animals
'Are they...?' I say in disbelief
'The game masters' Arisu finishes my sentence
𝐈𝐈
Because of my injury, Arisu and Usagi insisted that I stay here and wait for them as they go down the metro station to find the game masters base. I really tried to make them let me come but they were no way I could actually do it. So instead I stayed here and waited. I was laying on a bench outside, looking at the sky and the clouds forming. One cloud had the shape of a bunny riding a skate and another had the shape of an ice cream. A small chuckle escapes my lips when I notice one resembling a cat, a cat hanging upside down with a huge smile. As this cloud moved away, a small crescent moon appeared in the still-sunny sky. I sighed and closed my eyes, still seeing the sun through them, now was not the time
Not even after a minute, I hear loud music playing, I look around and see some giant screens lighting up. On it were the playing symbols and the inscription 'SPECIAL URGENT CALL'
'What the hell' I stand up and take a few steps in the direction of the screens
'Congratulation all players' A human voice says and a face appears. A familiar one
'Mira' I whisper
'With the exceptions of the face card games, all of you have cleared all the numbered games thus far and emerged the victors. A sweet victory you've grasped by sacrificing numerous lives.
I wonder how many of your comrades have died? Try remembering...
Those that were shot dead with a gun.'
Images of a player getting shot play on the screens
'That girl you burned alive.' More death. 'Those struck with the lasers and those that drowned. Those who were blown off.' Arisu's game appears. 'Or even, those you slashed yourselves' She says smirking
And new images play on, those of my games... Those of me kneeled on top of that man, slashing his eyes off, without mercy... And those of the ten of hearts, where I heartlessly killed... I feel sick seeing those images again, reliving the moment, but I absolutely do not regret it
'The despair you've felt so far and those dying moments that you can never forget. I'm extremely touched!' She fake cries. 'All of you players, we would like to give you a present.
There will be new games!'
My heart drops, 'More games?'
'Let's play together! You'll fight for face cards!' She says excitedly. 'We've still got many more wonderful games prepared for all of you, so look forward to it!
The next stage will commence tomorrow at noon. Let's have some fun together!'
She finishes her speech and fireworks explode in the bright sky. With now written on the screens
𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞
I should feel scared, devastated, tired, helpless... But now knowing who I am fighting against, I feel more enraged than ever
I am ready to fight
Suddenly I feel a shadow over my head and frown. I look up and see an airship passing over me, a giant face card floating underneath, the Queen of Heart. It goes over me like it was mocking me. Showing me that even after all I've done, I am not the Queen of Heart of the Borderlands, yet. But I still have to kill for it
Each face card airship moves across the city to various places before stopping in a particular place
𝐈𝐈
I hadn't moved, I was still in the same position, my eyes glued to the screen. I was in deep thought. Thinking of my next strategy, we won the number cards, but this time, we'll have to face the face cards. The difficulty will increase. Who's now behind those games? What kind of games?
'They were unfortunately not the game masters' I hear behind me and jump turning around while holding my chest
It's only Arisu, so I sit down on the near bench and deep breaths holding my chest feeling the pain caused by the injury from the sudden movement.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you' He says apologetically
'It's fine, I was just waiting for you guys' I look down 'Did you find anything else?'
Usagi sits down next to me. 'Well, we did find something. But not what we expected'
I look at her confused as Arisu explains. 'The screens were all shut off, and the people were all dead, killed by lasers. What we thought were the game masters were not more than puppets like us. Part of a machine, no more human beings. They were killed after our victory.
But now, now we know who's behind it all'. He says
I look at him confused. 'Who? Mira?' I ask and he nods. 'No that can't be. Mira likes the games. Hell, she loves them. But I'm pretty sure that's not what she's here for. I bet she has something special planned. But the whole Borderland isn't it, it's something more precise. I know it.
'How can you be so sure?' He insists
'I'm pretty sure she's just important for the next stage, but not the game master of the Borderland, someone's above her. There must be something else we haven't caught on'
'What like some kind of aliens or god himself?' Arisu asks while chuckling sarcastically
'No, that's more what Chishiya would have-' I stop and look at him. 'He was with you right? He's the one who said that, right?!' I start breathing faster and walk closer to him. 'Where is-'
'No matter whoever said whatever is above us' Usagi interfere. 'For the moment we need more answers'. I stop and look at her
'And we know where to find them' Arisu says looking at the airships. 'Do you think you'll be able to fight with your injury?' He asks looking back at me, nodding at my chest
I take off my hand that was still placed on it. 'I'll do anything it takes to see those airships crash. They better be ready for their downfall' I say looking at some in particular
I am ready to fight
I am ready to win
𝐈𝐈