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AKUJI CHI STOOD IN THE streets of Tokyo, glancing around at her surroundings as she clicked a pen. She clicked out the tip of the pen before scrawling a line through two words on the palm of her hand: 'stage two'.
She'd been told by many survivors that if everyone completed the first stage of the games in Borderland - they collected all cards except the face cards - that they would then proceed to stage two of the games - they had to collect the face cards - and then they would be able to go back to their world.
They'd be able to go home.
However, Akuji highly doubted that information now. It had been two days and nothing had happened. Perhaps Akuji had to clear all the games herself before she was transported to stage two?
She'd only completed three games: the seven of spades (or 'boiling death'), the two of clubs (or 'hunting competition') and the two of hearts (or 'poison carriage'). Because of this, her current theory seemed quite plausible, despite the fact that blimps with face cards attached to them had appeared.
Upon hearing footsteps behind her, Akuji turned, her body tensing as she got ready to either flee or fight.
The girl spotted four individuals: two men and two women. One woman had dreads and the other had short hair, and one man had platinum blonde hair whilst the other man had shaggy, brown hair.
"Are you waiting for the games to start, too?" The woman with short hair asked Akuji.
The girl relaxed upon realising the four were not about to harm her. She nodded, "It's been two days and nothing has happened."
"Maybe we have lots of time before the next stage starts." The woman with dreads suggested.
The man with the blonde hair shook his head, sarcastically giving his own opinion, "Or they forgot to push the big red start button."
Akuji noticed the clear companionship between the four. She glanced between them, musing, "Did you all complete your games together?"
"Most of them." The boy with shaggy hair nodded, "I'm Arisu, by the way."
"Akuji." The girl returned, holding out her hand for him to shake. He awkwardly did so as the other group members offered their names.
"I'm Kuina." The woman with dreads smiled.
"I'm Usagi." The other woman told her.
"Chishiya." The final individual stated.
Folding her arms, Akuji surveyed them all with a friendly smile, although she was secretly studying them in her mind. Could she trust them? Who would be the first to go? Who was the biggest threat? Eventually, she said, "Nice to meet you all. I hope we can be friends."
"Wait-what's that sound?" Usagi questioned.
A low rumbling could be heard from a bit away. The individuals looked to the source of the noise as it grew louder and louder. Cars appeared on the roads, driving towards them but without intent to harm.
"They're alive. Beach people." Kuina said in amazement.
"Beach people?" Akuji repeated, confused.
"Our old group." Arisu told her.
Rumbling fading as they parked, the cars continued to fill in the space around the group. They almost blocked them in, and Akuji was acutely aware of how outnumbered they were. She gripped her pen tighter, eyebrows furrowing as she got ready to run.
Arisu took lead and walked over to one of the beach people, demanding, "What is this? What are you doing here?"
"We saw the blimps show up." They told them. "There are rumours that the next stage is starting."
"They might be only rumours." Akuji stated.
Before anyone could say anything else, there was a loud explosion and the person in front of them crumpled to the ground, blood shooting out from them. Then, the same thing happened to the person beside them - and then to everyone around them.
"A rifle." Chishiya stated calmly. He walked away at an adequate pace as others started running away as fast as they could. "That thing's an anti-tank rifle. So I would forget about hiding behind a car."
Akuji dashed away from the rifle. Her legs were going as quick as they could, her chest heaving. Someone in front of her was running much too slow and so she grabbed their arm, pushing them behind her. Gunfire and a scream told her that they had been shot.
A part of her felt bad and another, bigger part of her easily brushed it off. She was facing death currently and that problem was not her biggest - plus, the person would have died later on anyway. Probably.
Needing a moment to think, Akuji dived behind a short wall. She took a few seconds to catch her breath before glancing around her surroundings, realising she had been joined by the individuals she'd met earlier.
"Did they give us any rules?" Kuina asked.
"Don't die, presumably." Chishiya replied.
"Without rules, this is just a massacre!" Arisu exclaimed.
Akuji peeked over the top of the wall, noticing the large amount of players, "They're probably trying to lower the survivor count."
"That rifle can kill from a kilometer away." Chishiya informed the group. A different but still familiar sound was now heard. "Now, we've got an assault rifle."
Arisu grimaced, "There could be more than one shooter."
Quickly, Akuji ducked down and scrambled across the floor at incredible speed before fully standing and dashing away. The shooter(s) were getting closer. The new allies she seemed to have made ran after her.
"We need to split up!" Chishiya shouted.
Nodding even though she was sure he couldn't see, Akuji split off from the group and raced down a mostly empty street. The gunfire could still be heard, though, so she kept running until she felt like her legs would give out. She ducked behind a car as she caught her breath.
Akuji looked around, seeing if she could spot the shooter. Instead, she saw Chishiya and Kuina hiding behind a car next to her, and Arisu and Usagi hiding behind a car beside them.
"Hey, you two!" Kuina called out to them, "You hurt?"
"How close is the shooter?" Akuji asked the more important question to her.
Arisu frowned, face full of confusion as he realised something, "The King of Spades is just one guy."
Suddenly, ashes of dust and destroyed tarmac blew into their faces as the King tried to kill them.
"We're pinned down here!" Kuina yelled.
"If we step out, he'll get us!" Usagi shouted back.
As if the universe had heard their problems, a solution instantly appeared. A horn honked and everyone peered around their cover to see a car pull up beside them.
"Ann!"
"Tatta!"
Upon hearing Kuina and Arisu call out their names, Akuji knew they were friends and that it was safe to enter the car, so she did so. Even if she didn't want to, she wouldn't have been able to choose freely as Kuina had pushed her in front and into the car first. Akuji wasn't sure why the woman - or anyone else - was looking out for her. It was most likely due to her age as Akuji was nineteen and everyone else seemed to be in their mid-twenties.
"Run, Chishiya!" Kuina screamed at her friend. He was the last one to head to the car.
"Oh, that's not good," He stated as a grenade was thrown in his direction. Before he ducked behind a car to save himself, he yelled to his friends, "Get going!"
So they did, and they sped away hopefully toward safety.
