BLUFF [AIB]

Stage One: V

[Started: 12/25/2022]
[Ended: 12/26/2022]
[Song: ALICE IN BORDERLAND by Yutaka Yamada.]

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Alice In Borderlands
BLUFF
STAGE ONE: Rubatosis
"The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat."

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Chapter Five
"Tag."
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Looking up at the apartment building Y/n prayed that it wouldn't be like last time. Old man wasn't with her. He was at a separate game probably trying his best to be killed.
She joined the others in waiting for the game. There were quite a few people that had joined. As she looked around at her future teammates or opponents she notice a few of them. One was a girl. She had a Bob and bangs, she wore an athletic outfit and was already stretching. Then there were two men, one was bald and buff, the other was lanky with a full head of hair, both however had locker key bracelets on with numbers drawn on them. The last was a man in a white hoodie who she recognized from the capture the flag game. The only reason she had remembered him was because of the card he took.
Two others joined the group. The first was tall with frosted tips and the other was shorter with longer shaggy hair. They looked around the group before conversing with each other. Then they approached Y/n.
'Oh no. Don't talk to me please.'
"Excuse me are you a doctor?" The taller one asked.
She shook her head.
"Then do you know anything about these games? Why we're here?" The shaggy one looked hopeful.
"I can't help you, sorry." She replied sinking into the wall.
"I can help you." A man in a fedora came up behind them.
Y/n took her chance to slip away from the group.
"Registration is closed."
"Difficulty: five of clubs."
"Game: tag."
"Players must find the safe zone before the time runs out and without being tagged."
"Game starts in four minutes."
Everyone started to roam around the building. Y/n watched as everyone left and cluelessly stood there.
'What would Old man do?'
She looked up at the top floor.
'I bet you can see everything from up there.'
So she left to the top floor. Upon arriving she found the bleach blonde up there as well. He was leaned up against the cement railing lazily as he looked down at everyone. There was also an MP3 player hanging out of his pocket.
She walked toward him. "What's that mp3 player do?"
He jumped slightly surprised by her appearance. "I didn't hear you coming."
A smile tugged at her lips.
'Old man's rubbing off on me.'
"Sorry."
He shoved the player farther into his pocket providing her with no answer. "What are you doing up here? Following me?"
'How conceded.'
"No. Same thing as you I guess." She looked down at the other floors.
He hummed smirking slightly. "You continue to surprise miss Y/n."
She froze. "How do you know my name?"
He chuckled at her. "You told Kyuma at the flag game."
"Ah." Embarrassed she avoided eye contact with him.
'And he remembered it? What a creep.'
"As usual, everyone looks like their about to die." He sighed.
She ignored what he said. "What's your name?"
He looked amused by her question. "Chishiya."
    He put his arms on the railing making his sleeves ride up a bit. She could clearly see a locker key on his wrist.
    'He has it too?"
    With nothing else to say Y/n moved her attention to the other floors. She didn't know what she was looking for, she just hoped that observing like she always did would lead her to an answer. As the game progressed more and more people were short down by a person in a horse mask. No one seemed to be cooperating with each other. Y/n didn't expect them to either. But she was pleasantly surprised by the scruffy looking man calling out to the others. He asked that everyone shout the taggers location. He took a risk in doing this nearly being caught by the tagger as he ran away. Y/n admired his selflessness, it was something she was unfamiliar with but refreshing to see.
    Chishiya didn't think anyone would help the man. But a girl that had been climbing the floors did. She yelled the taggers location before climbing up a pipe to another floor.
    The mask obscured the taggers vision. That much was clear. But while being on a floor above the tagger shot across at a man in a baseball cap. The door he was by got littered in bullet holes.
    'Why would the tagger shoot across?'
    It didn't come to her at first but she quickly figured that was the safe zone. She glanced at Chishiya, he was looking at the door.
    "Excuse me." She left his side making her way to the staircase.
     She went down a few floors before walking into what looked like a meeting. The bald man, his accomplice, the scruffy looking man, and his tall friend. They all looked at her in surprise.
    "Um sorry." She pushed past them into the hallway.
    "Wait!" The scruffy guys followed her. "I know where the safe zone is."
    "So do I." She replied.
    "Oh. Um, I'm Arisu."
    Y/n stopped and turned to him. "Im Y/n but I don't think that really matters right now. We don't have much time left."
    They kept walking to the door but Chishiya came down the other end of the hallway a smug look on his face. "So you two did figure it out."
    'His attitude is so arrogant.'
     "Ignore him." Y/n moved to open the door taking a step inside the dark room. She searched the wall for a light switch while Arisu and Chishiya walked in front of her.
     "This feels to easy." Arisu said.
    Out of the corner Y/n saw something shift. Then she heard the familiar click of a gun. "Arisu watch out!"
    Chishiya got to it first. He took the MP3 player from his pocket and tased the tagger with it.
    "So that what that was for." Y/n looked in surprise.
    He smirked tossing the taser up. "Always be prepared."
    The tagger got up and shots ran through the air. Arisu ran into the other room slamming the door shut while the blonde grabbed Y/n's shirt pulling her into the hallway again. He shut the door his back thudding agains it while he caught his breath.
     'That was a big gun.'
     "Please move." She told Chishiya, wanting to get back in the room.
    He looked at her like she were growing flowers out her ears. Of course on him the look wasn't as noticeable. "Are you trying to die?"
    "Standing out here won't exactly save my life either." She stated.
    He moved out of the way and watched as she went in.
    The tagger had gotten inside the room Arisu was in. He was behind the tagger fighting to get the gun away from them. Shots fired aimlessly at the door making Y/n hide behind the wall. When she had a chance she ran to the tagger grabbing the barrel of the gun and pushing it up to the ceiling. Bullets flew into the roof as Y/n kicked the taggers knee making them bend uncomfortably. Arisu jumped away from the tagger as the window to the room shattered and the climber girl jumped in. The tagger fought with Y/n for the gun. Eventually she kicked the taggers hand off and ripped the gun away from them. She repositioned it in her grasp and backed up to point it at them. Arisu and the climber girl both ran to hit two big red buttons.
    "Congratulations, you have won."
    "What?!" The tagger ripped of the mask revealing a middle aged woman. "No."

    Y/n was never as innocent as she seemed. She would do malicious things and get away with it. For instance, Buffy had a habit of stealing Y/n's things, including her food. But Buffy was deathly allergic to almonds. So one day Y/n switched her coffee creamer to almond milk. Buffy like anyone with an allergy carried epipens with her. But that day she had been snooping around Y/n's station and left her bag there. So when Buffy had a reaction No one could find her purse. Y/n knew exactly where it was.
    She watched as Buffy struggled to breath and began to puff up like a balloon. Y/n didn't plan it but the reaction was truly becoming life threatening. However she could not find an ounce of remorse in her for Buffy. That day Y/n was going to let Buffy die. But someone ended up calling an ambulance. At the end of the day Y/n made sure to move Buffy's bag away from her station, just so no one would be suspicious of her. She told herself it wasn't her fault or her business. All she did was switch to almond milk. It was Buffy's fault for not using her own damn creamer.
    In conclusion death wasn't something that fazed her. So when the woman's head blew up in front of her and covered her in blood she didn't care. It was just something that had to be done. She was more annoyed by the liquid staining her clothes. The second time around it felt normal, like routine.
    She wiped the blood from her face. Clicking on the safety she slung the gun around her back.
    Arisu crumbled to his knees crying. "I killed her."
    The climber looked at him sympathetically. "You didn't. You do what you have to. It's not your fault."
    Chishya leaned on the door way looking at the mess. "That's just how these games go."
    Arisu stopped crying and a looked of realization hit him. He jumped to his feet running out of the room. "Karube!"
    The climber girl left after him leaving Chishiya and Y/n. She moved to leave as well but he blocked her way out.
    "Your a lot smarter than you appear to be." He said.
    She looked at him blankly. "And your more arrogant and conceded per capita, than you are smart."
    He chuckled at her reply. "You should come with me. There's food, water, electricity."
     "No thank you." She pushed past him.
    Leaving the blond behind, Y/n left to the bottom floors. One of which had two dead body's. One of a tagger and the other was the bald man's accomplice. Arisu and his friend were listening to a radio repeat "get to the beach" over and over.
    They looked over at her.
    "Do you know what this means?" The friend asked her.
    She shook her head no.
    "Are you leaving?" Arisu asked.
    "Yeah. I hope you find what you need."
    "Thank you. I hope to see you again Y/n." He gave her a small forced smile.
    Strangely Y/n admired the nerdy man. Despite his lazy appearance he was selfless and honest. The complete opposite of her. She was annoyed by him but also wished to be him.
    "Goodbye."

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