There had been a time Chiasa laid down for so long that her stomach started getting hungry, her heart beating against her skull unbearable, and the constant knocking of knuckles and sniffles invading her room from under her door a primal burial of the older sister she had forgotten to be after the incident happened and her fervid rage vanished into dull tears running down her cheeks and a crushing weight of repulsiveness sinking in between her teeth.
Even then, as the hot steaming of her coffee warmed her face while she looked over the horizon, she could still feel the calloused hands that had made her fear to die and pray God for forgiveness, so sorry of not having believed in him before she had choked up on frantic jolts and desperate bites, twitching limbs too tired to wrestle and aching lungs too out of breath to keep screaming. She was birthed and raised to pour her heart and soul into building a home for her sisters to settle in, but the walls became stained and the painting started peeling, until the rottening insides spread over to the floor, and the entrance door, and soon enough it intoxicated the three of them. Chiasa died alone in her room once, a second time cooking dinner with leftovers so the youngest wouldn't starve, and a third time lost around the streets, tasting blood against the roof of her mouth and fingers numbing over a phone's booth, because living for three meant dying three times in a row.
"How will you live in this world that's full of despair?"
Chishiya's voice, like a feather falling right in front of her eyes, slithered towards her as she opened her room's window completely, watching it bounce, and leaned half her body on the ledge. Folding her legs under her butt, she turned her head up, though the terrace's edge blocked her sight.
"I just want to know the answers to my questions, the ones behind this crazy game and who killed Karube and Chota." A man responded, "I thought I'd be able to survive and return to the original world with everyone, but if that's not possible, I want Usagi to return, at the very least." He explained, "This is the only reason why I'm still alive."
Suddenly, Chiasa cursed in a grunt, shaking the coffee off her hand flashing red. A reason to stay alive, she repeated for herself, recalling how May's stuttering used to receive her every time she arrived from work and how Yumi's giggles sounded before the afternoon she came back holding her own fragments, unable to speak a word without accidentally cutting her little sisters' palms. Chiasa learned to be quiet from a young age, to hold her breath when carrying one of her girls to bed and sometimes hush the other to stop her from laughing as she drew a mustache on the sleeping part of their souls, but not even years of lowering her voice would've taught her how to avoid her sisters to not listen her sobs.
"What a tearjerker. Your dream... It's cool, but it's not practical at all." Chishiya talked again, and of course, where he was, Chiasa knew she would trail behind him.
"You'll have to win all the games and become the next Number One, but that's impossible." Kuina spoke too, huffing a chuckle.
"It has nothing to do with you guys."
"We think that you have potential, that's why we came to meet you." She assumed he was testing him, trying out what he was made of, how far he would go even with bleeding hands, "What if I said there's a way to change the status quo all at once?" Chishiya asked, and she knew by the guy's silence he had been trapped, like a mouse between a cat's claws.
The true nature of their utopia wasn't only death to the traitors, it was the amount of those that were hidden in plain sight, walking down halls and drinking by the pool.
Chiasa was The Beach's oficial meddler, at least from what she'd heard Niragi once say, and she didn't deny it; she was its eyes and ears, and when needed its tongue and lips. She knew who thought staying too long wasn't an option, who believed Hatter blindly, and who was embroidering a plan to leave The Beach with all the collected cards. But Chiasa wasn't a gossiper, because she was one of them too.
"Is everyone making sects nowadays?" She rambled out loud, squinting her eyes to look up at the terrace, right where she expected to find (and found) Chishiya smirking back at her, "Should I do one too? What do you think?"
"If you felt left out, you should've said so." He tilted his head, "My offer is still in your plate, whether you leave it or take it is up to you."
Chiasa watched his body step backwards and sighed.
Perhaps they did agree on some things, contrary to what she had initially thought, one of them being that The Beach was just an escape from reality, even if for her it had never worked the same as she couldn't get away from the memory that crawled into bed with her every night she fooled herself she was safe.
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FREEFALL, hikari kuina
FanfictionNO TWO PEOPLE CAN KNOW THE SUN THE SAME WAY. . . ˗ˏˋ Chiasa was aware there were as many gods as many stars, that someone could have as many dreams as many wishes and could tell many lies as many monsters could hide inside the same closet, that livi...
