𝑴𝒂𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓
𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅
𝑬𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅
𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅
♧.♤.♡.♢
I had gotten back to my room after my encounter with Chishiya. But this time it felt different, something shifted, it felt raw, vulnerable, and true. Like we were finally letting our guards down. That was terrifying, but so addictive at the same time, like I craved more.
I only slept for three hours tonight. I woke up with a bad headache from the nightmare I just had. It was almost eight when I just finished dressing up from my shower and I heard someone banging on my door. My heart skip a beat thinking of who could be behind that door. I am not familiar but the knocking. I don't know who it is, but I know who it isn't, so my heart slows down and I open the door.
'Tata?' he looks terrified and breathless
'Something bad happened. Please come with me!' he shouts
'What? Tata, calm down, what happened?!' but he doesn't answer and starts running again
My head hurts even more, I don't move, I need a moment to understand what's going on and-
'Hurry!!' he shouts and pulls me out of my trans. I shake my head, run and catch up with him.
I don't know what happened but I see militants leaving their posts, so it doesn't sound good, at all.
He stops abruptly before the staircase. 'Go to the meeting room, I have to go and find Ann' he tells me and I nod.
I stopped running but kept a fast pace, whatever is going on, I couldn't miss it. I'm almost at there when I hear some muffled voices.
'Hey, wait up', 'Where did you guys come from?' militants, I start running again.
'We didn't ask you to come here' I could recognize that voice anywhere, Niragi. I quickly turn the corner and see he was talking to Arisu and Usagi, but I wasn't prepared to face another person there.
'I called him over' Chishiya answers Niragi. Oh great, the two of them, it's never good.
He already saw me, he keeps eye contact and grins. I feel my throat gets dry. I didn't know how to feel after our conversation last night. I still hadn't had the time to fully process it. But it seem like he did, and enjoyed seeing me struggling to find my posture.
Niragi didn't even acknowledge my presence and turns around to face Chishiya. 'Hey, don't go gathering people on your own'
He takes steps closer looking at Niragi nonchalantly. 'There's something important he has to hear'. I frown when I hear this, does he already knows what's going on? How? 'Let's go in' he says getting his eyes back on mine.
Arisu says goodbye to the short girl and walks away, I follow close behind as he asks something to Chishiya. 'What happened?'
Chishiya stops. 'Who knows' he quickly glace behind him and meet my interested eyes. 'It must be something serious' he says before opening the doors.
We walk in, per usual the white cat has his hands back in his pockets. I caught a glimpse of something laying on the table. But I can see Aguni standing at the end of it, with a facial expression that sends shivers down my spine. Death and grief are written in his eyes as I finally see what's laying on the table. The body of Takeru Damna. The body of Hatter.
The whole room is silent, we are all processing the information and the shock of the discovery. I knew something of the sort was meant to happen, the militants were bound to take control, but that way?
I hear footsteps from behind me and look, Tata and Ann finally made it. The young boy breaks the silence.
'It seems like he couldn't clear the game. The maintenance team found him by chance in Shinjuku while we were refilling gasoline' he explains. Ann looks really interested in the dead body, she is used to autopsies. She approaches the table and is about to touch the body when Niragi interrupts her.
'Hey don't touch him as you please. You dissection maniac.'
I clench my jaw, I feel like this is going to get worse.
'He was shot by a gun. Did his game involve guns?' she asks and Tata answers
'Most likely. Some of those near the game area heard gunshots too.'
But Niragi breaks the seriousness with his cocky attitude. 'Oh my. He should have brought the militants along with him!'
I look at Chishiya but he just shakes his head. A young boy asks what all of us are wondering inside 'What's going to happen to the Beach?'
Chaos, anarchy, in a world like this, when the King falls, so does his house of cards.
Mira proposes something. 'Keep this secret from the rest. They'll be shaken by this'
Now that the king is dead, all of the executives want to take his place, so Kuzuryu claims what should be his. 'I'll be the next leader, since I am Number Two'
But of course, the militants won't make it that simple, there are no more rules now. Niragi jumps in. 'Wait a second. Shouldn't the strongest person be the leader?' He says glancing at Aguni. Here we are, the moment when the militants will take over. 'We're the ones who have been getting rid of the traitors yet we've been treated as shadows the whole time. This unfair treatment ends today!'
'If Number One dies, everyone moves up a number. We agreed to this rule' Kuzuryu retorts.
'The snobbish dictator is dead. The power has shifted, hasn't it? Let's just go democratic and go with the majority.' Niragi says walking around, his rifle on his shoulder like usual and stops next to Mira. 'Who agrees that Aguni should be the new leader?' But no one speaks, no one dares to make a noise. 'What a bad reaction. Last Boss' He says nodding to the tattooed man.
Last Boss gets out of the corner, take out his katana, and expands it, right under Ann's throat.
'I'll ask again. Who agrees that Aguni should be the new leader?'
Threatened by the blade, Ann takes a moment but raises her hand. Then Mira speaks up. 'This is not a majority rule'. She shouldn't have provoked him, he is laughing maniacally.
'It is, isn't it?' He places the end of his rifle under her head. 'You're free to vote after all' So she too, slowly raises her hand up.
But he won't stop there, he knows he has the upper hand on everyone. 'What about former Number Two over there? What will you do?'. The tension is thick, dangerous, mortal. Kuzuryu cannot do anything and gives in.
I watch the interaction really carefully, is he really going to go that far? Is he really going to shoot if you don't raise your hand? Well, I guess my question is about to be answered. He turns around and locks his eyes with mine. I can only see fire in them, his eyes are burning on me. There is no more sympathy, only fire. He raises his rifle in my direction and walks over to me.
'What about you, Aime?' I feel the cold metal under my chin pressing into my skin, I raise my head a little. I am not scared, I know he won't shoot. 'Who will you choose?' he asks almost above a whisper. The question has a double meaning. Aguni or Kuzuryu? Him or Chishiya? What he is doing isn't part of the vote, it's personal.
But I don't let the fire consume me, you can't set fire to the rain. I keep my head high. 'What if I don't choose your side?' I say and smirk as I see conflict in his eyes. 'Are you going to press the trigger? Are you going to kill me, Niragi?'. I may not seem to be in a position to have the upper hand, but I don't need a bullet to kill, my words can be deadly too, and will get into his head. 'Because if you can't have me, no one can, right?'
He aims his rifle, 'Stop talking and choose' he says with gritted teeth. Who I vote for doesn't really matter, if it is Aguni or Kuzuryu, we will get out of this place soon anyway. But the double meaning matters.
'I choose Kuzuryu' I say smiling.
But he doesn't find it funny at all. He arms his rifle, the bullet ready to leave- 'You wouldn't want to kill one of the only people able to get you the last Heart card would you?' Chishiya interrupts him 'Come on Niragi, I thought you were smarter than that'
And just like that the weapon isn't targeted at me, but at the boy on my left. And now I am scared. I knew he wouldn't have actually harmed me, but Chishiya, he wouldn't have the same fate against him.
'Are you looking down on us Chishiya?' Niragi asks
'But you guys are really stupid' he says to him with his sneaky cat eyes. Come on boy, now is not the moment to make him even angrier.
Niragi stepped closer to Chishiya towering over him. At this instant, I am ready to jump in and stop this. 'Those eyes of yours really piss me off. It's so condescending'
And to this comment Chishiya raises his hands, mocking him. Niragi aims at him again. 'I vote for Aguni to be the leader.' He looks down at the rifle. 'Are you all right about losing me as your precious yes vote?'. He is making fun of him.
Niragi sights and let his rifle down and back away. 'Well I hope you reflect on how you should act in the future'. And with that, he leaves and goes for another victim.
I let out the deep breath I was holding. Chishiya looks at me and shrugs his shoulder smiling, I roll my eyes and shake my head. This boy will be the death of me.
I take my attention back to Niragi, he is having fun scarring Arisu with Last Boss. 'You were really scared for a moment there, right? That's so funny!' He laughs. 'All right'. He walks back to the center of the room, close to the laying body. 'Suddenly everyone is voting yes. So the new leader is decided, right?'
But Mira doesn't agree. 'Hatter would not allow this. If he were alive, he would not have allowed this'
'But he is dead' Niragi says, punishing the dead body in the head with the end of his rifle. 'The dead won't know what's going on' and punches again and again. 'See' he spits on the cadaver.
'Enough'
Aguni, speaks for the first time. Everyone's attention suddenly shifts from the horrific scene to the muscular man.
'From today onwards. I will be the Beach's new king'
'Isn't this wonderful!?' Niragi happily shouts and claps. 'Now Boss. What's left is the succession ceremony. Let's open the black envelope.'
🂾
We all leave the meeting room. 'Hey, Chishiya!' I run to catch up and take his hand before he could put it in his pocket.
'Yes' he says calmly, looking into my eyes before letting his gaze drop to our hands
I drop his hand and scratch my head from embarrassment. 'I-I, uh. Why did you do this?'
I see malice in his eyes from how I reacted, he acts dumb. 'What have I done?'
'Don't play with me. Why did you provoke him? That was really stupid. He could have killed you'
'He was about to kill you first.' I was about to retort that he wouldn't have but he speaks again before I could. 'Besides, you wouldn't have let it happen, right?' He says testing me but I don't find it funny.
'Well, maybe I would have' I tell him honestly pissed by his reckless behavior. And before he could say anything back I change the subject. 'How did you even know Hatter was dead before the rest of us?'
His playful gaze suddenly drops and he looks more serious. He turns around and walks away. I stay still, looking at his back. I thought he wouldn't answer but he stops and turns his head to the side.
'I was on the rooftop and saw them arriving at dawn' he finally says.
He was on the roof, no no no, he stayed on the roof. When I left it was around four and the sun rises shortly after. There is no way he left and came back in such a short time period.
He stayed on the rooftop after our conversation. He stayed there the whole time.
'Come on now, we have something serious to talk about'
🂾