Alice In Borderland One Shot Collection

Gaming - Chishiya

The moment she waltzed through the front door, Chishiya knew something good happened. The smile on her face was bright, but it was the fact that she was humming Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 that tipped him off. It was her favourite piano piece.

Putting down a box on the kitchen counter, she grabbed a knife from the block and sliced it open then giddily pulled out what was inside.

"Tadah!" she grinned, showing off two boxes of Nintendo Switch.

"You don't game," he pointed out.

"I do now," she said. "I hate the Chuya name but there are perks of being a Chuya."

That was something Chishiya thought he would never hear. She hated her family name more than anything, even before he knew her. Though, he understood what she meant. As a Chuya, she was often offered invitations to launch parties, events, and even free gifts to promote on her social media sites. It was a perk that even he benefited from.

"They sent me one with my name engraved on it," she smiled, opening one of the boxes and showed Chishiya the engraving on the back of the console. "And I get two red controllers."

"I learnt today that your name is Chuya Shuntarou."

Kurenai frowned, flipping the console over to see his name 'Shuntarou' engraved. She rolled her eyes and opened the other box, double checking the name on the back before showing it to Chishiya again. "Ku-re-nai, see?" she smiled. "I asked them for another one and had your name engraved."

"You do know that more than one person can play on one console, right?"

The look on her face said no.

Chishiya laughed, picking up the console she ordered for him.

It was the little things about her that he loved. How she would get excited over the smallest things and the first person she would think of was always him.

Scrunching her nose at him, Kurenai ignored him for the next thirty minutes, setting up her console on the sofa. She had it docked and connected to the smart TV, and then for the next hour, she was browsing through the system. Occasionally, there would be an 'ooh' or an 'ahh' when she found something interesting.

"Shuntarou!" she called, her eyes glued on the TV. "They gave us some games for free. Isn't Mario Kart that popular driving game? Come play with me."

Although he had a mountain of work, Chishiya could not say no.

He plopped himself down on the sofa and picked up the controller. In all honesty, he never played video games before. He downloaded some games on his phone once but they were so boring that he deleted them within the hour. He did not understand the entertainment value in a false sense of achievement when one would 'beat a level'.

They picked their characters, and their karts: Chishiya chose Mario while Kurenai chose Bowser. Choosing a random track, the game began.

As soon as they started, Chishiya zoomed right to first place. The game was surprisingly intuitive, and he understood the mechanism almost immediately. Kurenai, on the other hand, was stuck in last place. When she should have been going forward, she reversed instead. When she was supposed to get the boxes, she avoided them thinking they were obstacles.

The first race ended even before she finished the first round.

"Well that sucks," Kurenai frowned. "Why was I going backwards the whole time?"

It was a blessing in disguise that she never got her driver's license.

Picking a single player game this time, Chishiya pulled Kurenai between his legs and had his arms around her, his hands on top of hers on the controller. He taught her which button to press, how to get the boxes, and how to use the boxes. While she was still not quite sure what to do, it seemed like she was slowly getting the hang of it.

"Alright, let's start a new game. I'm going to win this time."

With her still sitting between his legs, they started a new race.

Kurenai was slow, but at least she was moving forward this time. She knew how to use the shells and was bombing people out of the way, climbing up the ranks. Chishiya was just ahead of her, but also just out of reach and she had no more shells. They kept in the same position until the last lap.

Noticing an NPC using a red shell behind Kurenai, Chishiya slowed down and let her overtake, taking the red shell for her. He was bumped off the road, and by the time he was revived, he was in 11th place.

Passing the finish line, Kurenai came in fourth.

"I won!"

She threw her arms up in the air, looking up at Chishiya with a grin.

"Yes, you did," he smiled, leaning down and kissed her forehead softly. "Want to play another round?"