Marionette ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

Ten of Hearts - Part Two

Navigating through the hallways, Kurenai checked every door she came across while keeping both an eye and ear out for the militants. She had survived thus far, she was not about to die. At least not here in this hotel.

Each and every door she tried opened easily without the locks. As stupid as the militants were, they were not stupid enough to keep Arisu in an unlocked room. There had to be a room somewhere in this hotel with an untempered lock. One that they never told anyone else about.

As she approached a corner, Kurenai heard some footsteps coming down the hallway. She pressed herself flat to the wall, trying to remember the quick five minutes self-defence lesson Kuina gave her before leaving.

-

"Make a fist, but remember thumb out. Aim, and extend your elbow when you punch. If you don't feel confident using your fists, then use the ball of your palm. Get close enough and just hit as hard as you can. Try and aim for the facial area, the nose especially. If you want to disarm someone, hit their elbow from below. They'll lose their grip on their gun. My advice though, is try not to fight. You're not exactly the fighter type, just run the other way."

-

It was a little too late for her to run, and Kurenai did not think it would be a good idea to make any noise at this point. And running down a hallway with her back to someone with a gun was not the smartest idea either. She saw that first hand in the five of Spades game.

Taking in a deep breath, she prepared herself by curling her fingers, leaving her palm exposed. She was not confident in using her fists, her only advantage here was the element of surprise.

When the footsteps were close enough, Kurenai finally stepped out from around the corner.

She struck the person, knocking them down. Adrenaline was pumping through her body though she realised there were more than one person. It was a group of four people, but fortunately for her, they were all familiar faces. Tatta, the person she hit, was on the floor, holding his nose with his hand while his friend helped him up. The other two were Usagi and Asahi.

The moment Usagi laid eyes on Kurenai, she took a step forward and slapped her hard across the cheek.

"I guess I kind of deserved that," Kurenai mumbled, rubbing her cheek.

"Where is Arisu?" Usagi asked, grabbing Kurenai by her hoodie.

"Do you think the militants will tell me where they kept him?" Kurenai hummed, tilting her head. As smart as she was, Usagi could be quite dense sometimes. No wonder she made a pair with Arisu; they were both clouded by emotions.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you find Arisu," Kurenai smiled.

"Why?"

"To clear the game, of course."

Usagi gave her a skeptical look. She had been in cahoots with Chishiya, and if there was anyone who could get away with being the witch, setting up something so elaborate, it would be either of them. And Usagi would bet on Kurenai; she had those looks.

"What do you mean, clear the game?" Tatta asked. "Does this mean you know who the witch is? Then tell us! Tell everybody else!"

"Oh my naive little cutie pie," Kurenai sighed. "If I could, I would have already. I wouldn't be wasting my time looking for Arisu."

"How do we know you aren't the witch?" Usagi asked.

"Little bunny, it's good that you don't blindly trust people but skepticism really isn't a good look on you," Kurenai smiled. "Just stop and think a little. As a witch, would I be openly offering you help to look for Arisu? I think I'd just hide until this fiasco is over, or...I'd kill you."

"But why Arisu?"

This time, it was Asahi who asked.

Letting out a sigh, Kurenai closed her eyes. She was feeling a migraine coming on. There was a two-hour time limit on the game, and about thirty minutes had passed since the game began. With militants practically breathing on their necks, they really did not have the luxury to be standing around asking and answering questions.

"Because he's the one person we know for definite is not the witch. He's been locked up the entire time. People would be more inclined to believe him than they would anyone else, including me. So are we going to waste more time on questions and wait for the militants to come and kill us? Or are we going to find Arisu?"

She could still see distrust in Usagi's eyes though by now, neither of them had a choice. They stood more of a chance finding Arisu with more people. Despite their differences, and their very different reasons for finding Arisu, Usagi and Kurenai teamed up for now.

Carefully, they were searching the hotel floor by floor.

It was not a plan Kurenai particularly liked, however.

The hotel was too big a place with too many rooms for five people to be searching in less than an hour and a half. And it might not be a hotel room that they locked Arisu in. What if there was a secret room they never knew about?

"We need a militant," Kurenai said, stopping in front of a room.

"Are you insane?" Tatta asked. "They are running around with guns and shooting everyone in sight, and you want us to go looking for them?"

"We don't need all of them, we only need one. If we can get them to talk, we'll know where Arisu is. Or else we'll never find him."

Right on cue, as if they were in a movie, two militants came down the hallway, pointing their guns at the group. Without thinking, Tatta tackled the girl onto the floor, pinning her down while the other guy took care of the other militant. Raising his fist, Tatta stopped himself just before he hit her.

"Where is Arisu?"

"He's somewhere on the fourth floor."

--

Sitting on the sofa in an empty room they found furthest away from the chaos, Kurenai looked to her left arm where there was now a slash in the sleeve of her hoodie. In the midst of their fight with the militants, she was grazed by a bullet. How many scars was she going to add to her body?

"Did Chishiya dump you too?" Arisu asked.

"You'll dump little bunny over there before Shuntarou dumps me," Kurenai retorted.

"We only have thirty minutes left," Usagi said, interrupting. "We need your help."

They spent several minutes explaining the game and the rules to Arisu, updating him on what happened so far.

"This is like the tag game we played. It sounds like the witch has a different set of rules to what we players have. They kill the girl to start the game, and they have to survive until the end in order to win."

Listening to Arisu, Kurenai could not help but scoff. She came all this way, got a new injury, just to hear him say what everyone else was thinking? They praised him as a Hearts player, but she was starting to think that perhaps they were on different levels.

"Do you have something to say?" Arisu asked, frowning at Kurenai.

"It's a Hearts game, Arisu," she reminded him. "Stop thinking like a player, and start thinking like a game master."

"Think like a game master?"

It took him a little longer, but eventually Arisu realised what she meant. "I see...you've figured it out from the beginning, didn't you Kurenai?" Arisu let out a soft sigh. How could he have overlooked such a thing? "I think I know who the witch is too."