Maple In Borderland - Chishiya Shuntaro

A Simple Game of Tag

Letting out a tired sigh, Kaede made her way to the closest game to where she was camping out. Her visa expires tomorrow, so she has no choice but to join in on the troublesome games. The last one she played was a five of clubs. It was a messed-up version of tug a war and her team won.

Stepping into the Toei Sendagaya Apartment building, she noticed some people already there. Ignoring their stares, she went up to the little round white table and picked up one of the phones. Holding the phone up a bit, she waited for the usual chime as a loading screen appears.

FACE RECONITION IN PROGRESS PLEASE WAIT FOR A MOMMENT.

"Please wait until the game commences." The robotic voice ordered. "There are currently ten participants. Two minutes until registration closes."

With an eye roll, she steps back from the table as a girl with short hair walks past her. Looking over, she sees a guy with a blue hat looking from his phone to her with the usual panicked expression you would see from a new player.

He finally worked up the courage to walk up to Kaede, but she could still see him visibly shaking with fear. Any longer and the poor guy might throw up. Not that she would blame him for doing so. As long as he doesn't get any vomit on her.

"Um, excuse me." He partly stuttered. "What- Where did all the people in Tokyo go?"

Before Kaede could even open her mouth, a tall buff guy pushed through them. He had on a black tank top and camouflage military pants. Letting out yet another sigh she moved to stand somewhere else. The guy in the hat most definitely had the personality of her brother and she couldn't allow herself to get attached to him.

Getting attached to someone who probably couldn't take care of themselves is basically asking to be killed. She had to stay away from people like that in order to survive. Looking up, Hikari noticed a guy in white sweater with his hood up. He seemed to be listening to music and charging something. She raised a brow in silent questioning, but her attention was stolen from the white hood to two people who had just entered the game.

They were both tall but one of them had shaggy black hair that looked soft but greasy and the other had short, bleached hair. Friends. The two guys were close friends, and she could see that clear as day. She quickly looked away from the two as memories of her own friends infiltrated her brain. She didn't have time to think about that now. She had a game to win.

She looked down at her phone as it chimed and annoyingly loud noise. During her first ever game, she almost died because of the damn thing. It was practically a curse if you needed to hide or be quiet.

"Registration has closed." It announced. "There are a total of fourteen participants. The game will now commence."

Kaede couldn't help but silently mock the robotic voice. She had heard that line one too many times, and it never gets any less annoying. Out the corner of her eye, she could see White Hood watching her with a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Difficulty, five of spades."

"Just my luck. Another damn spade game." Kaede muttered softly under her breath. She leaned her head back against the wall with a sigh and closed her eyes. Another headache was staring to form, and she had run out of aspirin that she found in a convenience store.

"Five of spades?" she heard a male say out loud somewhere to the right of her. She didn't feel like opening her eyes to see who the voice belonged to.

"It's gonna be physical." Another voice joined in. They sounded annoying, but Kaede tries not to judge people based on their looks and now, their voice. "Only the strong survive." He sounded cocky.