JOKER || Alice In Borderland

⁰⁰¹ Miya Koichi

𝐀 MANGA & 𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐗 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒...

𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃

今際の国のアリス

A MAN SAT WITH AN UNAMUSED EXPRESSION ON HIS KITCHEN BENCH, staring at his mother who furiously mopped the floorboards. She wore an apron and had her hair tied up while she cursed under her breath at a spot that wouldn't vanish.

"Ma, the ground is probably shiner than gold itself, stop cleaning it over and over again!" He told her but his words just made the women scowl.

"Koichi, if my house isn't spotless, then I have failed as a hostess for your grandparents!" She cried and started running around to get more chemicals to burn the house down.

He sighed and continued to sit on the bench as per his mom's instructions. Apparently his dirty presence could infiltrate the floor and make it more filthy so he was ordered to sit on the bench.

Whatever that means.

Koichi didn't know but knowing how scary his mom can be, he shut his mouth.

A loud groan echoed throughout the house as his mom came storming in with empty bottles in her grip. She had a frown on her face and looked desperately at her son.

"My child...go buy us more cleaning supplies. I need this house to be spotless! And your grandparents are coming in an hour!—" Koichi didn't bother to listen to the rest of her rant and rubbed his eyes in annoyance.

"Mom, why can't you go down? If I step down my 'dirty' feet will dispose of all your hard work that you've been doing for the past 14 hours." He snapped bluntly but the women just tutted and threw the empty bottles at him.

"Go get me soap!"

"Jesus, fine!" He cried and hopped off the bench, his mom crying inside at the sight of his feet touching the ground but she still pointed to the door and Koichi reluctantly went to grab his wallet until coins were thrown at him.

"What the hell?! Coins hurt, why would you do that?"

"Here! No time to waste boy, go buy!"

Koichi held his wallet in disbelief before bending down to pick up the coins and walk to the door just avoiding the slap his mom nearly gave to his head.

"Women's bloody insane." Koichi grumbled to himself and pulled his hood up, walking out the apartment building. He headed towards the convenience store that was around a five minute walk. Hopefully he got what his mom wanted, he wasn't exactly an expert on cleaning supplies.

If he failed, he might as well say his prayers now.

It was busy in Tokyo, it was always jam packed with people trying to get where they needed to be and Koichi didn't know if he liked it or hated it. The crowds were something he was used to but he disliked when someone would shove past him and not even apologise.

Tossing up a coin in his hand, Koichi whistled a small tune as he stopped at the crossing and waited for the light to go green. He wasn't exactly paying attention and accidentally bumped shoulders with someone.

"Shit—my bad, sorry." He apologised as he faced the person quickly to apologise.

It was a boy with blonde hair long enough to be put in a ponytail, pieces framing his face. He had a plain white cardigan which frankly quite suited him. The pair made brief eye contact as blondie slightly nodded and two went their separate ways.

Koichi finally made it to the small convenience store and quickly went to the cleaning product section, and scanned the items for anything remotely familiar.

"Why do chemicals always look so edible?" He mumbled to himself, picking up one of the bottles and studied the purple gooey liquid with fascination.

The chatter around the store was quiet, not loud enough to cause disturbances but enough to tell you there were other people in the store. The faint sound of a car crashing perked Koichis attention, and he slightly leaned back to see out the window of the store. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Koichi turned back to the rows of washing liquids.

It was just then that the lights suddenly flickered off, plunging Koichi in darkness with only a light dim from outside making it just visible.

No one else was in the aisle with him as he looked to his left then right and saw nothing. He took a slow breath, silence overlapping the entire store and he paused before shrugging and finally just grabbing a few random bottles.

Good enough for him. They all did the same thing, right?

Shopping in the dark wasn't so bad and the small light from the windows made it easy to find the counter. Walking towards it and silently checking how many coins he had, he placed the items on the bench but no one was there. Tilting his head, the brunette leaned forward a bit and looked around but couldn't find any staff.

"Hmm? Hello?" He called and then turned around but the whole store was empty and quiet.

Strange, it was just bustling two minutes ago, where did everybody disappear to?

"So...if no one is here does that mean I don't have to pay?" He asked no one in particular and the silence told him yes, but just because he was so nice, he placed one coin down and walked away with his items.

He wasn't that stupid to not leave any money. Think of the economy.

Walking outside, Koichi knew something was up when the streets were also empty.

No one yelling at their incoherent teenagers, no business men laughing at the bars with beer, no groups of friends giggling as they went shopping.

No one...?

The brunette pursed his lips, frowning as he slowly walked around, not liking the silence one bit. Koichi wasn't one to be shocked at most things, a surprise party he would've guessed it, jumpscares that are in movies did nothing, heck even a large spider on his arm wouldn't make him flinch.

But this, a busy city completely dead in the middle of the day, was a tiny bit scary.

Koichi walked around a bit more then pulled his hood up again, feeling a bit safer with his neck covered and shoved his hands in his pockets. His eyes roamed the streets, taking into account all the big screens had turned black as well.

"What the hell...? Where did everyone go?"

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