Steal all cards. Leave The Beach.
As easy as Arisu had confided his plan to them, Saki didn't believe a word out of it. It was the secretive tension on his voice that gave him away, the most unnoticeable peck of a crack on a ceiling that let the rain slide in, dripping until someone looked up. He hadn't thought about it alone, but Saki knew it wasn't Usagi the one who sewed the thread for him.
She poured the boiling water over the chamomile flowers resting at the bottom of her cup, let it steep for a couple of minutes, and thought over the steam that warmed her face.
She thought about Hatter, about his fantasy land that wasn't so different from hers, about the ones hungry of power and a plan that could either result in success or sign their death contracts. She thought about Usagi accepting to work along Arisu and her own silence, left to be tasted cold in her room by two people she trusted but was afraid to care about as she exited it quietly.
Somehow, she found her way around the mansion. Following the wall's patterns of missing pieces of wall paper, clefts, and splinters, her hands had started to finally mold the inside of The Beach and adapt to every turn she took and every corner she stumbled across. The first times were the hardest, but she got the hang of it the fourth one when she ended up in a kitchen and made a stop to prepare an herbal tea in the meantime she tried to recall the path she took.
However, as she walked back to her room, Saki noticed there was something wrong along the walls. As she leaned away from it, a burning sensation covered her right arm the same way Icarus's wing was licked by the Sun's tongue.
"Fuck!" She muttered. The cup rolled over the floor.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" A boy said, reaching up to her, though the instant he noticed her retreat, he quickly came to a halt. His apologies didn't stop nonetheless. "I'm so, so sorry!"
Saki held her breath for half a second to calm the trembling on her hands.
"Are you okay?"
Saki grasped her arm flexed against her thorax, making her press her lips closed and her nails dig into her skin to hold back a pained grunt. Ann's fingers twitched in an attempt to touch her shoulder blades to gain her attention again, but Saki exhaled slowly and answered as if nothing had happened before she could make a move.
"Yeah, totally." She inclined into the direction she heard her joining. "I, um, don't think we've met yet, what's your name?"
"Ann," For a moment, Saki thought the conversation would just die there and, even though she tried not to, she hoped Ann didn't let it sink. She hoped that she would tell her they met two times already, that she was there when she arrived and avoided her from being electrocuted, and that she was a bad liar. Fortunately, her voice fulfilled her quiet desires, "What's yours?"
"Saki." She smiled.
"I'm Tatta," The boy spoke up, "I'm really sorry, I'll make another tea later, I promise! It was nice meeting you, tho! Let's go Ann."
He didn't let either of the two say another word. Saki assumed there seemed to be better places to be for them than standing in the middle of a hallway, with tea getting cold on the floor, and her wandering alone. She was fine with it, it wasn't like she'll never be capable of getting her way back to her room. Even so, Saki waited until their voices were far enough to still be heard but to a safe distance from where she wouldn't be discovered.
She tried pushing further her exploring, her death wish, and kept close to the sound of their hurried steps, however, she was still learning, so the second she went for a turning she knew she'd lost track of them. Saki would've groaned out loud if it wasn't for the discussion that was about to take place a few meters away from her.
"Where did you guys come from?" A man asked angrily, "We didn't ask you to come here!"
"I called him over."
Arisu's eyes were drawn to Saki's figure approaching the group quietly.
"She's with me!" Arisu excused himself, ahead of any comments that could threaten her health.
"She's with us." Another man said. Saki couldn't help wondering if he was his puppeteer, the one behind the plan that, at that moment, didn't seem like theirs anymore.
"Don't go gathering people on your own."
"There's something important he..." The mysterious, soft-spoken man halted, considering the previous exchange to correct himself, "They need to hear. Let's go in."
People walked past her. Arisu's fingers touching her wrist made her head turn to where she perceived him go by, though the unwelcoming man was faster to react to her stillness.
"Move, dolly, we don't have all day." He ordered, grazing the mouth of a firearm against her lower back, making pressure to obliged her to follow the rest.
Getting closer to them, she heard Arisu whispering to someone.
"What happened?"
"Who knows? It must be something serious."
That was all he got out of the man as doors creaked open and they all set foot into the room. Shortly after, another two people she lost minutes ago joined them, and the silence was finally lifted.
"It seems like he couldn't clear the game, the maintenance team found him by chance in Shinjuku." Tatta's voice was clear and loud for everyone to hear and not ask him to repeat himself.
Saki's arms dropped to her sides, fingers spreading to try looking for Arisu's clothes fabric without letting anyone's eyes catch her desperation to find a part of him to hold onto in a space so vast. All her attempts ceased as she realized she didn't really know where he went the moment they went inside the meeting room. She hadn't been there before, she felt small and vulnerable and not part of them at all, but she didn't dare to make a move, she wasn't willing to lose the critical point where she was standing. Ten steps straight, her mind recited until being interrupted by the man who pushed her to walk inside.
"Hey, don't touch him as you please, you dissection maniac."
"He was shot by a gun," Ann stated, "Did his game involve guns?"
"Most likely." Tatta answered, "Some of those near the game area heard gunshots too."
"Oh my, he should have brought the militants along with him!"
Silence grew a fang that got deeper into their throats.
"So what's going to happen to The Beach?"
"Keep this a secret from the rest," A woman suggested, "They'll be shaken by this."
"I'll be the next leader since I'm number two." Another voice joined the call.
New leader, Saki's heart jumped a beat. Suddenly, everything began to make sense. The private meeting, the hedor of death, the militants' anxiety, their eagerness to take action. Hatter's dead. The realization of the situation fell into her like her chamomile tea burnt her hand. They didn't need a new leader, they wouldn't take the time to listen and gave the power to a new person. The intention was there from the start, waiting patiently without them knowing. They already had one chosen.
The reunion wasn't only for a matter of acknowledging Hatter's death. It was to make an announcement.
"Shouldn't the strongest person be the leader?" The militant asked, "We're the ones who have been getting rid of the traitors, yet we've been treated as shadows the entire time. This unfair treatment ends today!"
"If number one dies, everyone moves up by a number. We agreed on this rule."
"The snobbish dictator is dead, the power has shifted, hasn't it?" Nobody answered, "Let's just be democratic and go with the majority."
The militant started pacing around, like a spider on its own web, too confident about the resolution even though it hadn't found closure yet.
"Who agrees that Aguni should be the new leader?"
Saki tried to remain calm, to focus on something apart from the tension tying a knot around her neck and the pain on her body burning her muscles from the inside, yet all her mind could think of was: We're fucked.
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didn't think i would get this far when i first started writing jskds
But i'm enjoying the process,
and i hope y'all are too <3 take careee