Seeing the words "NEXT STAGE" appear on the tall building gave you some sort of adrenaline rush that coursed throughout your body. You couldn't help but wonder how hard the games would be. You didn't care if you died, all you wanted was to do something in your life for once. You never felt too excited to do anything, but now that you know that you finally have a purpose to live and survive in this world, you were ready to fight. Knowing how manipulative he is, you can't help but wonder how long until he decides to betray you. But even with these thoughts, you can't bring yourself to distance away from him. He was just a Sudden Interest.
"Y/N," you heard a faint voice call you, "wake up."
Your eyes fluttered open, and you realized you were in an apartment. You sprung up and looked around, suspecting you might have been kidnapped. You scanned the room you were in and noticed how clean and white it was.
Kuina entered the room and you let out a small sigh of relief.
"Hey! You fainted when we were facing that huge building," she said, "so Chishiya took you to his apartment. How are you feeling now?"
You blinked twice in confusion. You really weren't feeling tired at that time, so how could you faint?
"I don't remember fainting. It just felt like I was asleep. I don't feel tired at all," you replied, looking at your hands.
Chishiya walked through the door and leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms as he gave you a lazy wave.
You got up from your bed and fixed your hair, then put your heels.
"Should we start heading back there?" You asked. "I'm guessing it might be almost noon."
Chishiya nodded and removed himself from the doorframe. Kuina walked towards the door and stopped behind you, letting you go first.
"Since that king of spades airship was there," you started, walking down to the entrance with them, "will we be playing a spades game? I mean, it's the most logical thing, but I'm still wondering."
Chishiya nodded. "I think so," he replied before looking at your feet. "..You should change those."
You grabbed his chin and lifted his head back up, removing his gaze from your feet. "I'm not going somewhere without my heels. They are my prized possession."
Chishiya smirked in response.
The rest of the walk was silent. As you looked around, you couldn't help but notice that moss and plants have taken over some buildings. Now, vegetation was more presence than actual living beings and its spreading around fast. Time seems to go by fast in this world.
Finally, you were now facing the huge building. You figured it was noon, because it said "NEXT STAGE START" on the building. You saw Arisu and Usagi who were already there.
"None of the games have started yet," Arisu said.
"Maybe we still have time," Usagi replied.
"Or they forgot to push the big red button," Chishiya said sarcastically, earning a small scoff from you.
Kuina sat down on the ground. "They didn't even tell us the rules for this one."
You heard cars in the distance and turned your head to search for the source of the sound.
"What is it?" Kuina asked you.
"I hear something," you replied.
"Me too," Usagi said.
You all looked to see multiple cars headed towards you.
"They're alive," Kuina said, staring, "the Beach members."
They all parked somewhere and got out of their cars.
"What is this? Why are you here?," Arisu asked.
"We saw the blimps show up," a man replied.
"There are rumors that the next stage is starting," a girl said shyly.
"Right.. here's the thin—"
A loud gunshot could be heard and the man got blown away by the gunfire. Everybody looked around in panic and when the gunshots continued and when more people started dying, everyone started screaming and running.
"A rifle.." Chishiya said, "get moving."
"That is an anti-tank rifle," you said nonchalantly.
"..So I'd forget about hiding behind cars," Chishiya said, raising a brow as he looked at people getting blown away after trying to hide behind cars.
You chuckled before grabbing his arm and started running to follow Arisu, Usagi and Kuina.
"Where is it coming from?!" Usagi yelled, breathing heavily.
"Run, run!" Arisu said. He was running for his life.
"Does this mean the game's started?" Kuina said as you all hid behind a white station.
"I don't know," Chishiya replied.
"They didn't even give us rules!"
"Without rules, this is just a massacre!" Arisu yelled.
"That rifle can kill from a kilometre away," you said with a bored tone, looking back. The sound of the gunshots suddenly changed, meaning the shooter changed guns.
"Damn it! I recognize that sound," Kuina said.
"Now we've got an assault rifle," Chishiya said.
"We have no idea how much there are! Other players are starting to group together," Usagi said as you all peeked from the corner.
"Could be more than just one shooter," Arisu replied.
"I had no idea so many players were still alive!" Usagi exclaimed, still breathing heavily.
"They're getting closer," Arisu said, "we have to run!"
You clicked your tongue and followed them as you saw bullets hit the floor. Arisu rolled over on the ground to dodge the bullets.
"This is bad!" Kuina said, trying to dodge any incoming bullets.
"We have to split up!" Arisu yelled, ducking and running.
"Fucking hell," you said under your breath, "is this seriously the king of Spades' game?"
You, Kuina and Chishiya ran in the same direction, going up to the plaza of the mall. You saw multiple people get shot as you lazily dodged all the bullets that were aimed for you. The adrenaline that course throughout your body made you run faster and more active as you jumped down the stairs. Now, you were hiding behind a car with Kuina and Chishiya.
You peeked from the car you were hiding behind and saw Arisu trying to help a guy that's been shot.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" Kuina yelled, immediately hiding behind the car again when she heard bullets coming for her.
"Leave the guy! We don't have any first-aid things, and he'll eventually die from blood loss!" You yelled.
"Where the hell are they shooting from?" Kuina said, looking around.
You heard something from above you and looked up to see the king of Spades' airship right above you.
"So this really is the king of Spades," you said, squinting your eyes.
Chishiya fumbled inside his pockets and took out two cans with wires on them, handing one to you and one to Kuina.
"Here, take this. A good luck charm," he said with a slight smirk.
"What is this..a bomb?" Kuina asked, looking at it.
You turned the can around back and forth, analyzing it before nodding and putting it inside your pocket.
"Just use it if you have to," Chishiya said, taking one out and showcasing it.
You heard footsteps and whipped your head around to see who it was. You saw Arisu and Usagi running. He stopped for a few seconds and his eyes widened, looking at something— or someone, before running towards it.
You scoffed and saw him picking up the person, running behind a car that was right next to you. You looked at the person once and knew already that he was dead. Arisu called out to the man, not noticing he was already dead. Once he realized, his breath hitched and his eyes widened before setting him down to rest in peace.
"Hey! You two okay? Are you hurt?" Kuina asked before loud gunshots could be heard near you.
Arisu flinched and looked behind him, witnessing people get shot right in front of him.
"The king of Spades is.." he said, furrowing his brows, "just one guy."
You turned your head away from the sparks that the gunshots created on the car you were hiding behind and clicked your tongue. "We're pinned down here."
"If we step out, he'll get us!" Usagi replied.
A car started beeping and stopped in front of you before a man peeped out the window. It was Tatta, and the driver was Ann. Seeing them surprised you but it relieved you to see them safe.
"Get in!" Tatta shouted, waving at you all.
"Don't just stand there," Ann yelled in a calm tone.
Usagi, Kuina and Arisu all ran inside the car quickly as bullets tried to hit them, but failed. You and Chishiya were the only ones left to get inside the car, but you had to avoid the insane amount of bullets that were aiming for the both of you.
"Go," you said to Chishiya, pushing him slightly towards the car.
"Run, Y/N, Chishiya!" Kuina yelled, keeping the door open for you.
Chishiya was running towards the car with his hands in his pockets.
"What the hell?! Run normally!" You shouted.
You and Chishiya both saw something dark and round hit the ground and your eyes widened.
"Chishiya! Get out!" You yelled.
"This is bad," Chishiya said, "get going!"
"Chishiya!" Kuina yelled, "Y/N!" Her voice was full of worry as the car drove away from the explosion of the grenade.
Chishiya ran back to you, once again with his hands in his pockets. He dived to quickly avoid the explosion and landed on you, hitting his head against your shoulder.
You clicked your tongue, seeing Ann's car driving away. "What now?"
"Who knows?" He said, removing himself from your shoulder, "maybe I'll search for some clues myself."
"So, we're splitting up?" You asked, ignoring the gunshots that could be heard from a distance.
"If the king of Spades is here, then surely there's other games, right?" He replied as he adjusted your sitting position.
"That could be right," you said, "after all, we need to collect all the face cards."
"Then it should be logical to split up. We'd complete games faster and eventually get out. The king of Spades' game arena is this whole city, and within this city there are games. All of them surely have agreements to their games, such as not interfering, so let's go," he told you.
"Alright then."
You got up and dusted yourself off before tending your hand out for him to grasp on to get up in his turn.
In truth, you were hesitant to let him go, because of your deal, but you knew you had to do it for your good. All you could hope was for him to survive and come back safely.