Saikyō | Alice in Borderland

Ⅵ

VISA COUNT: 15 DAYS

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The night was slowly fading, and dawn was approaching when the car Karai was in finally stopped. The two men that approached her had it and to her surprise, it worked. None of them talked much along the way. She learned that the bald man's name was Aguni and his companion's was Kuzuryuu. They also asked her what her specialty was but she didn't know what to answer and so she stayed silent. Shortly after, she fell asleep. Miyo's absence was new to her and it felt kind of strange, especially when she was woken up by Kuzuryuu and saw his face instead of hers. 

"Are we..?" She asked, still a bit sleepy. The man nodded. That was when she noticed that both men have swimsuits. She decided to not question it and just go with them. Her eyes widened when she saw the place they were leading her to. It was a huge hotel called 'Seaside Paradise', but the name was now canceled and there was the word 'Beach' written over it. "Get Hatter, I'll stay with the new girl." Aguni told Kuzuryuu and he nodded, disappearing inside. "Who's Hatter?" She asked, suspiciously staring at the man who was now towering over her. "You'll find out soon enough." He answered dryly.  

He wasn't very talkative, yet it was fine with the woman. They both stayed quiet until Kuzuryuu didn't show up again. "Get her to the card wall." Aguni walked in after him, not bothering to hold the door for Karai. "Follow us and don't go exploring on your own yet." She didn't react to his words, but she followed him anyway. She soon found herself in a huge room where she was welcomed by a man with fancy sunglasses and, of course, in a swimsuit. Next to him stood two women. The fancy man pointed at a chair in front of him. "Take a seat, dear, let's see what you've got." She obeyed and sat on the chair. "I have to ask you to empty your pockets, can you do that?" She wanted to disagree but something about the tone of this man's voice made her feel suspicious and so she just nodded, taking out the three cards she received, a piece of paper with her visa written down and, of course, she took her gun out from the belt she stole when she visited the police. 

The man approached her and took all of these objects away. Taking a look at the cards, he read the names out loud. "Three of Spades, Six of Clubs and....NINE OF HEARTS?" He eyed the short woman with a strange look. "You obtained it alone?" 

"Yes." She finally spoke up. "Sacrifices had to be made, but yes." The man known as Hatter let out a high-pitched shout of happiness. "We needed all three of those, thank you for helping." She tilted her head to the side. "Huh?" The man looked at her, snapping his fingers in realization. "Oh, you don't know...right." He showed her the wall of cards with some of them already crossed, but most of them still uncrossed. Then, he proceeded to explain everything about the cards and about a possible way out. 

"As soon as we get all the cards, only one of us is allowed to return back to the original world." He started. "We have numbers for that and since you brought in very good cards, you'll get a high number so you can leave sooner. Sadly, we still don't have a lot of members so the most I can do right now is to give you the number nine." Karai nodded. "I'll do my best to help out." 
As if, you cocky bastard. She said that with a smile, but her eyes stayed dull and her mind, well, contradicted her spoken words. She hated it when people tried to put themselves above her. Hatter probably noticed the look in her eyes and so he looked at Aguni, then back at the woman. 

"There are only three rules at the Beach. One, you must always wear a swimsuit. Why? Because it's hard to hide firearms in them, right?" He laughed and Karai just hummed in response. "Two, you're free to live your life exactly as you wish. You can drink, do drugs or even have sex." He winked at her and she raised an eyebrow. Why would she want to do any of that in a place like this? "What's the last rule?" She asked, not wanting to waste time. "Glad you asked." He made a dramatic pause. "The last rule is..." Another dramatic pause. Jeez, spit it out.

"Death to traitors." Karai didn't react to it. She didn't wish to kill Hatter, although he was already getting on her nerves. Still, it wasn't enough for her to hate him. "I understand." She spoke and Hatter smiled. "Of course you do. You're smart, aren't you?" He looked at the gun in his hand. "Well, you can play a game tonight and I'll have someone to test you if you're fit to become an executive." Before she could answer, Aguni decided to speak up. "She's a Sakamoto, Hatter. She'll slit the throats of your little group before they even realize what's going on." The tone of his voice was somewhat hateful. Did Aguni and Hatter not get along? After a pause, Hatter made a weird face. 

"Guess you found yourself another militant." Karai looked at Hatter, slightly confused. He just gave her the gun back. "You can be armed and you'll join more difficult games." She took the gun back and put it behind her belt. "Understood." Hatter looked at one of the women behind him. She also had fancy sunglasses and shorter hair. "Ann will give you a swimsuit. Then you can go with Aguni and pick out a bigger weapon than that small revolver that you have." She didn't answer, but bowed in his direction before following Ann somewhere unknown. 

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Aguni and Karai were on their way to the rooms after she picked out her weapon- a rifle. She never really liked guns, but her father's first lieutenant used to look after her sometimes and during one of those very boring days, he tried to explain to her how a rifle worked. She also slipped a small knife into the heel of her boot to which Aguni didn't really react but from the way he looked at her, Karai saw that he was amused. The Beach didn't really have many members. In fact, her number was the lowest so far. The woman that gave her a swimsuit was called Ann. Then there was Hatter's other 'bodyguard' who's name was Mira. She already knew Kuzuryuu and she soon found out that he was Hatter's second in command. Then there was someone called Mahiru that she didn't really bother talking to and finally, there was her. She still hadn't met the other militants, but she couldn't really say that she cared. 

"Your room's on the second highest floor. It cannot be locked since Hatter damaged all the locks with superglue but I believe that you can protect yourself regardless." Karai nodded. "You'll be tested tonight and don't expect anyone to go easy on you." His words made the raven-haired woman curl her fists into a ball, her nails digging into her skin. What kind of weakling did he take her for? 

"You don't have to worry about me, Aguni." She gave him a fake, close-eyed smile. "I know my place and although it's under you, I still believe that I'm above all of your dogs." With that, she walked away in the direction of her room, almost running into someone. "Tsk, tsk...someone is asking for trouble." She could hear a strangely familiar voice from above her. "Move your ass somewhere else and don't stand in my way." She answered, looking up to see who she was dealing with. Her eyes widened when she recognized the small playful grin and the black shirt with a strange white pattern. It was the male from the Six of Clubs game. 

Both of them took a step backwards to properly look at each other. "Oh what the hell." He spoke, his grin growing even wider. "Seems like your wound is healing rather quickly." He dragged his tongue over his teeth and Karai spotted a piercing on it. Her eyes widened even more. Suddenly everything made sense. Why he dragged her away from her group during that game. Why he encouraged her to kill people in front of him. He recognized her, yet she couldn't. Everything about him was so different. "Ni..." The male looked down at her. "Remember when I told you that if we ever see each other again, you won't recognize me?" Karai's vision was suddenly blurry. 

What...happened to you...?

Her facial expression went back to normal. "You were right, weren't you?" Aguni didn't say a thing and began walking away. "You've changed your style, it suits you." 

We both know that it's not the only thing.

"Isn't that obvious?" He asked proudly, then looked her up and down. Karai suddenly regretted choosing such a revealing swimsuit. She had a black two-piece with a spider web motive on the sides and a simple transparent white blouse over it. She wasn't ashamed of her body, but right now she felt naked. "I'm glad that we see each other again." She spoke after a while. Niragi hummed in response. "If you'll ever be as weak as when they took you, I won't hesitate to finish you off." With that, he turned around and shoved Karai aside, walking away. She stared at his back, her eyes slightly widened. 

Did I really fuck up that badly?

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WORD COUNT: 1623
EDITED: X