Behind every victory is a long train of suffering. Sometimes, the taste of victory is fully bitter. Not even a single feeling of justice or happiness through the thick layers of pain and suffering in order to get the win. At the other end of the river lies an island, a dream come true— but it is simply out of reach.
Fireworks.
You woke up to the sound of fireworks. You blinked yourself awake, feeling someone tap your cheek twice.
You looked around. "What? What happened?" You asked in a groggy tone.
"I'm not sure," Chishiya responded, "but don't you remember seeing fireworks before you also ended up in here?"
"Oh.." your eyes widened in surprise, "yeah, actually, I do."
You looked up at the sky. "I'm guessing Arisu and Usagi cleared it?"
"That would be the only explanation to this, I guess."
GAME CLEAR.
"Oh," you hummed and smiled at the fireworks.
CONGRATULATIONS,
You heard the A.I's robotic voice echo throughout the whole Borderlands.
WITH THIS RECENT EVENT, ALL OF THE GAMES HAVE BEEN CLEARED.
Your eyes flickered in shock. You knew it was coming— but, somehow, you were still shocked that this was truly happening.
ALL THE SURVIVING PLAYERS, PLEASE INDIVIDUALLY ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
FROM NOW ON UNTIL FOREVER, YOU HAVE THE CHOICE TO CONTINUE PLAYING THESE GAMES AS A CITIZEN OF THE BORDERLANDS IN THE NEXT GAMES WITH PERMANENT RESIDENCY. YOU MAY ACCEPT, OR DECLINE THIS POSITION.
WILL YOU ACCEPT, OR DECLINE?
"So, the current citizens stood here at their own will," you thought to yourself.
You hesitated as the A.I's question echoed across the Borderlands. You really didn't understand the concept of life, nor were you interested in it. You and Chishiya stood silent for a minute— which felt like an eternity. You didn't know which one to choose, but in the end, you let your heart decide.
"..I think I'll decline," you replied hesitantly, breaking the silence.
"I decline as well," Chishiya responded right after you in a quiet tone, "I guess."
He also seemed hesitant, just like you. He looked up at the fireworks that never seemed to end, and the corners of his lips curled up into his signature smirk.
"I guess we're going back together, huh?"
Your face broke down into a soft smile. "Yeah."
You looked over to Niragi. "What about you?"
"Ah, fuck that," Niragi mumbled, "I'm getting tired of these death games. I'm not gonna accept. I refuse."
"At least you still have some sanity left in you," you chuckled.
You held Chishiya's hand, and before you knew it, your vision was overcame with a bright whiteness.
You forced your eyes open, to be met with a blurred vision. You blinked a few times, regaining your vision slowly. Your ears were ringing and your whole body was aching. A few paramedics were surrounding you, looking at you as one of them performed CPR on you. You couldn't hear them— your ears were still ringing and their voices were completely muffled. Gently, you were lifted off the ground and placed onto a stretcher to then be transported to the hospital.
"..Shit," you managed to mumble out as you were being pushed into the ambulance.
You could see their mouths moving, but everything was ringing and muffling at the same time. All you could do was close your eyes, and hope that you wouldn't die in your sleep.
—☆×☆×☆×☆—
You woke up on a hospital bed, and realized that you could move again, but barely. You slowly sat up and looked around to see you were next to a blonde haired man and another man that was covered in bandages. Both of them seemed extremely familiar to you, but you couldn't remember where and how you feel this way.
"Ah, miss Y/N," you heard a nurse call your name.
You looked over to her and smiled, giving her a quick bow.
"How are you feeling? You finally woke up after a few hours," she asked. Her voice was washed up in relief.
"I'm fine," you replied, "my muscles hurt and it's hard to move, but other than that, I'm okay."
"I'm very glad to hear that," the nurse sighed, "it appears your heart had stopped for a few minutes. We are glad that you managed to survive. You and. few others were affected by the impact of the meteor after it crashed."
"Oh.." you hummed. "For some reason, it felt like my heart stopped for way longer than just a few minutes."
"Well, we are just glad that you got to survive. You are very lucky," she smiled.
You smiled back and bowed. "Thank you for your hard work."
"Of course. I will be back with your food and to run a few tests on you." She gave you a quick bow before walking away.
The man covered in bandages was grunting, coughing and cursing every second because of his wounds, which annoyed you slightly.
"Excuse me," the blonde man called out and turned towards the man covered in bandages.
"Would you please keep it down? I'm having difficulties trying to sleep," he looked over to the man that kept cursing, "but I guess it'd be quite an invalid reason."
"I'd be really happy to switch places with you," the other man grumbled, "but I guess your wounds are pretty bad too, huh?"
The blonde hummed and gazed at the man covered in bandages, then looked at you. "I couldn't help but overhear both of your nurses. It seems that your hearts have stopped for a minute too."
"Has anything changed, now that you two have been to the edge and back?" He seemed genuinely curious.
You stood silent for a few seconds before inhaling. "For some reason, I want to live life in a genuine way. I don't know how to explain it, but I just feel like I'm missing out on a lot of things, especially because I used to disregard the concept and value of life."
"Nope," the other man responded, "I can say for sure that my body is all fucked up, though..Anything change for you?"
The blonde hummed. "I also feel like up until now, I've been wasting my life away. Maybe I can live an honest life once I get dispatched."
"Ehh," the bandaged man grumbled, "how cliche.."
The blonde looked at you in a curious manner. "You seem familiar..have I met you anywhere before?"
You tilted your head and hummed. "I'm not sure. But for some reason, you seem familiar to me aswell. Maybe I lost a bit of my memory when I got hit by the meteor.."
—☆×☆×☆×☆—
After a few hours, you heard a few doctors walking towards you with food on a tray and a lot of documents and papers.
"Miss Y/N, we will perform a few blood tests if that's fine with you," a doctor said, "you suffered a huge loss of blood from your wounds. We are very surprised you made it out alive."
You chuckled, seeing the other nurses and doctors nod in relief. "I could consider myself a lucky woman."
The doors barged open, and you saw your mother and father, panting heavily as if they just ran across the world to see you. You were shocked to see them, especially since you hadn't seen them in months, but you were glad that they still had the emotion and sympathy to get up from their beds and drive to the hospital.
"My daughter! Where is my daughter?!" Your mother shouted, frantically looking around until her eyes darted on you.
Her eyes widened. You could see that she tried to hide her eyebags with foundation but they were still quite visible. It was visible that she and your father both couldn't get a wink of sleep.
"Oh, my daughter!" She ran towards you, tackling you in a hug. She was careful not to put pressure on your lower body to reopen the wounds. Soon enough, your father came in and embraced you both.
"Ma'am, we are about to run a few tests—"
"Shut up!" Your mother cut off the doctor by shoving a stack of 500$ to his chest.
"Careful with the money, now.." You hugged back.
She sighed, "Oh, we were worried sick! How are you feeling?"
"A few muscle aches, my arm can't be used right now and my stomach has a terrible wound. Other than that, I'm fine."
"You'd better get well soon," you heard your father say, "after all, you do have a meeting with an important client soon."
You nodded. "I almost forgot about that."
Your mother's phone started ringing. She opened it, and groaned as she saw who the caller was. "One of our clients are persistent. I have to get back to the shop."
"I'm glad you're at least awake, Y/N. Do call me when you're dispatched!" She smiled as she walked away with your father.
All you did was nod and wave before looking back at the doctors. "Sorry about that. What about the tests?"