Captured in a Dream [COMPLETED]

Five of Clubs (Part I)

AN: It has been requested that I write out the game I have mentioned before, so here's the first game you have played with Chishiya!

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It had been your first game since your arrival at the Beach. In fact, you'd gotten here just a day ago, after strolling through the empty streets of Tokyo completely lost.

Your companion and only friend in the Borderlands so far had died during your last game, and you were almost ready to give up.

But then, starving and exhausted, you had seen the lights of the Beach. It was in full daylight, so there was no chance it could be a game, and there were so many people! They took you in, gave you a plastic wristband with the number 217 and something to eat.

The rules of the Beach were simple: basically you just had to wear swimwear inside the hotel area and pass all earned cards directly to the Hatter, and then you wouldn't get into trouble.

While that last point was only halfway true (some of the elite guys thought they were the kings and could rule everything), it seemed to be a nice place in the middle of this hell game you were forced to play. You already got in touch with very nice people on your first day, and it gave you new hope.

So when your visa had to be renewed the next night, you were not as afraid as before. The main hall of the Beach was full of cheering people, and their mood thrilled you too. You were given a number and a car that would bring you to the game area, and with the people of the Beach around you, the chances of winning were high.

Including you, five people sat in this car, and you had already seen most of their faces. One of them, a guy that hid his face under a white hoodie and didn't say a single word, somehow caught your attention, but you couldn't say why. You tried to see his face, but he had turned his eyes towards the window, and you sat too far away to see anything.

"Let's hope it's not a hearts game!" A woman next to you said with a nervous laugh.

"Hearts game?" You asked. While you had managed to survive some games already, you didn't fully understand the system yet, and you were grateful that the woman, whose name was Ichika if you remembered right, explained it to you now.

"There are four possible game types. Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts. They all have different focuses – Spades is physical, Diamonds requires intelligence, Clubs usually is cooperative. But Hearts, well... Hearts games can only be survived by betraying and cheating on the other players."

The uneasy shuffle of some other passengers made you nervous too. Luckily enough, the car quickly arrived at the game location and you all entered the registration area.

It was a plain and dim room, lit only by a single lamp on the ceiling, and the table with the phones stood in the middle. The game held a maximum of ten players, and one phone was already taken. The five of you crossed the entrance line and took a phone each.

FACIAL RECOGNITION IN PROGRESS.
PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT.

You didn't care much about the message as it was the same in every game, but the laser barricades still made you feel sick. Once you entered a game, there was no turning back unless you wanted to die. You'd seen it already.

The facial recognition was completed quickly and a timer appeared on the display.

PLEASE WAIT FOR THE GAME TO COMMENCE.

As your Beach team had arrived at the game location quite fast, there were still almost 15 minutes left until it would start. You exhaled a sigh and sat down on the cold floor. The waiting time was almost worse than the game itself, but you understood that people needed time to reach the game areas in time. Not everyone had the luxury of functioning cars.