Marionette ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

Dealer's Choice - Part Three (Side Story)

Despite her efforts at solving the puzzles and trying to save everyone, by the time they got to the second last room, there were only three people left. The big man, the smart woman, and Aimi.

Knowing all the traps, Aimi had directed the players toward them, and they had all fallen. Just one more player and she would have fulfilled her task. If she killed them both, that would be an extra day on her visa, and that was a sweet, sweet deal.

The second last room was a simple room; there were only two doors with two simple phrases as their clues:

In life we trust. In death we choose.

"It's the life door, isn't it?" Aimi asked.

But of course, she knew which door it was.

Aguni was the first to make a move. He grabbed the doorknob but the woman was quick to stop him. He took a step back, a frown on his face. This was why Aimi hated leaving groups to the end to disband.

Groups that formed one or two games earlier were easier to wedge in doubt and distrust. After all, they knew almost next to nothing about each other, how could they put their lives in another person's hand when life or death mattered? Groups like these two, however, it was a real challenge.

Aimi thought perhaps they were the former type of group, where they only met a few games ago and banded together to increase their chances of survival. She could see that Aguni wanted to get rid of the woman too, from the beginning. When the old man grabbed her, he did not move a muscle despite being partners.

Somewhere along the way, however, he seemed to have let go of his resolve to kill her. Or perhaps, he just wanted to keep her until the end before betraying her.

"What? Don't you trust me?" Aimi asked. "We've come all this way."

"Don't take it personally, I don't trust anyone," the woman said.

She's annoying, Aimi thought.

Cautious people like the woman, logical and strategic, they were the most irritating to deal with. It was hard to get into their minds, but oh-so-easy for them to get into yours.

"But we don't have much time," Aimi said, getting a little agitated.

"We still have some."

Staring at the two phrases, the woman suddenly turned her attention to Aimi.

The look in her eyes...she knew something was up.

"You seem to be in quite a rush," she said. "I've noticed something about you. You've been quite talkative, bouncing from person to person and whispering in their ears. That man who doubted me, you incited it, didn't you? Everyone else is trying to survive, and you are going round causing trouble. What's your objective here?"

"So we can't trust what she says?" Aguni asked, walking toward the Death door.

"Aguni, don't move," the woman said.

Leaning in closer, she was looking straight into Aimi's eyes.

She saw it, that little twitch in the corner of her lips when Aguni chose the Death door. And when she stopped him, she could see the frustration in Aimi's eyes. This girl was not here to play the games. She was here to kill them.

But why?

"Go ahead, open the door," she said. "We've been doing everything the entire time. I solved all the puzzles, and Aguni walked through every door first. But this is a group effort, isn't it? Open the door, walk through it, then I'll believe you."

Pushing Aimi toward the doors, the woman had her arms crossed as she waited. Aimi was caught in a conundrum. She could not tell them the door to survival, nor did she want to. She did not want to expose her identity either, because that meant certain death for her. Though at this point, it did not matter what she did because that woman had it all figured out.

Grabbing Aimi's hand, she put it on the Life door's knob and opened it. She pushed Aimi into the room first, walking in behind her. As she thought, nothing happened. Aguni followed suit.

"When did you start doubting me?" Aimi asked.

"From the beginning," the woman said. "But like I said, don't take it personally. I don't trust anyone. Not even him," she smiled, pointing to Aguni. "Now would you like to tell us who you are and why you are trying to kill us?"

At the same time, the walls started closing in.

"It doesn't matter who I am, you're not getting out of here."

There was one wall that did not move, and in the corner was the exit. However, the other three walls with spikes were closing in on them and if they did not get out now, the exit would be blocked and they would be skewered.

Aguni was quick to move, going for the exit. Aimi took a risk, holding the woman back and kept trying to pin her onto the wall. Her struggling made it hard to hold her down but luck was on her side when the wall was finally close enough for her to push the woman only a spike.

Then, Aimi went for the exit.

When she came out, Aguni was expecting to see the woman. His eyes widened a little to see that it was Aimi who made it out. What happened to her?

"You made the right choice-"

Before she could even finish the sentence, Aguni ran past her and back into the last room.

Aimi was dumbfounded.

Why did he run back in there?

He got out! He survived! So why would he risk his own life and go back inside?

She stayed, staring at the exit the entire time. And for the first time ever in her life, she prayed. She watched as the exit was getting smaller and smaller by the second as the walls kept moving. She prayed that they would not make it out before the exit was completely blocked.

Her prayers were not answered.

With a space just about enough for one person to get through, Aguni pushed through while carrying the woman in his arms. He was scraped on both arms by the spikes, but it did not bother him.

"Why..." Aimi asked softly, collapsing on the ground. "Why did you go back in there to save her?"

Ignoring her, Aguni put the woman down and examined her wound. He wanted to take the spike out but she told him not to, telling him how to bandage her before passing out.

Murmuring to herself, Aimi was slowly losing her mind.

This was not the humanity she came to know.

Borderland brought out a different side in each person. Whether it was the coward they had always tried to conceal, or the asshole who would not hesitate to sacrifice every single person to guarantee his own survival. That was what she had observed.

Night after night, she watched players killing each other even when they did not need to. It was human nature, that was what she thought. But tonight, she was proved to be wrong. So very wrong.

That woman, despite her cold-heartedness and her arrogance, she was solving the puzzles of each room to save everyone. If Aimi were not there to interfere, she would have saved everyone. And the big man, unexpectedly, he was different to how she perceived him to be. He went back for the person he had been trying to kill all night. Why?

It was an answer she would never get, because as Aguni left the arena with the woman, a laser beamed down from above and right through Aimi's head.

Nakamura Aimi was no longer.