It’d taken Akira far too long to piece together a trail to the beach. All things considered, she’d been pretty preoccupied with the whole “not dying” thing. Yet, it had only taken a chance encounter with a smooth-talking, smug-faced boy to start to get to the bottom of things. Hell, he’d practically dragged her half a mile through Tokyo, running his mouth off. She’d no idea where they were going, or who he was. The guy dressed funny, she noted. The type of guy she easily could've mocked. Dark red hair - nearly a shade of plum- though it was obviously a shitty dye job, given the patchy bleach-blond, and brown roots. And he was somehow sticking out wearing a black jumper in the middle of the summer heat. It was a little impressive, though, Akira wasn’t going to give Shinya the honour of knowing she thought that.
“So, sweetheart,” Shinya began. Akira grimaced at that, but didn’t correct him. What was with the people here and calling her anything but her name? “Who tipped you off? Or, what did, if you must? See something’ sketchy?”
“Some chick in a game.”
“Agh, doesn’t narrow it down!” Shinya whined “There's got to be at least, like, twenty women.”
“Ever?”
“No-! No, not ever. Stop thinking I'm simple.”
“Didn’t imply you were.” Akira said blankly, keeping her voice monotone. Shinya scowled, before rolling his eyes.
“Whatever, sweetheart. Describe your “chick” to me.”
“uh..Short black hair, Red cardigan-”
“-Doesn’t narrow it down.”
“Let me finish. Brown eyes, I think?”
“Nope”
“Shh. Locker key and prayer beads, i think, on her wrist”
“You know the number on the key?”
“No.”
“Not helpful, then”
Akira glared at Shinya, crossing her arms.
“How the hell do you know so many girls?”
“I'm charming, handsome, good looking, charismatic, funny. You want me to go on? I’m a right catch, sweetheart”
Akira curled her lips into a scowl, not entertaining the idea. Shinya grinned, rocking back on his heels
“Yeesh. Tough crowd. But c’mon, I want to know who ratted us out. Please?”
“Us?”
“Yeah, The whole-”
“Don’t care. Her name was Lijuan, or something.”
“Oh! Lijuan?” Shinya nodded. “Wait, you knew her name this whole time? You could’ve led with that.”
Akira finally pulled her arm out of Shinya’s grasp, walking behind him. He’d kept the fact that he had a locker key from her, so she had been intending to lead him in circles for as long as possible. But she found Shinya and his faux charm so, so, so irritating, she couldn’t bring herself to keep the conversation up. He’d keep talking, though. God, he made Cerise seem like an angel sent straight from the heavens itself. Akira scowled at that thought. Ever since she’d gotten here, she’d gotten an increasingly growing list of people she owed. And she hated that. First, she probably owed Cerise some sort of apology for ditching him. Akira had thought about it for a while - he probably had no idea about visas. Or expiry. He could be dead, for all she knows - it had passed the 4 day deadline since her first game. Second, she owed Karube. And probably Arisu, by proxy. She was even less happy about that. Third, She owed the blond man who’d nearly shot her. Though, that was probably less important, considering he’d nearly killed her. And she’d probably thank Lijuan.
“-What’s with the pouty face, sweetheart?” Shinya’s words cut through Akira’s thoughts like a knife, waving a hand in front of her face “Can’t bear to listen to my sweet words anymore?”
“...Something like that, yeah.”
“Well, ya’ might just have to force yourself to listen a teensy bit more. We - Me n’ you- we’re almost at the beach”
Shinya paused for dramatic effect, waggling his fingers, though deflated when Akira gave no reaction. He coughed, looking to the side, before straightening himself up to continue.
“The No.1 here, he’s a pretty lax guy. Usually by the pool, I reckon. I wouldn’t bother him unless you’ve got something really worth his time, though. He’s like, a god to pretty much everyone here.”
Akira snorted at that mental image. A bunch of people worshipping some old guy in pool trunks.
“And, I know who the No.1 is…How?”
“These.” Shinya gestured to the locker key on his wrist. “The lower the number, the higher you rank. Top 10? They’re the executives. Keep the whole thing running smoothly.”
Akira thought back to what the Tatta guy had been saying. Lawyer guy, blonde girl, guy with piercings, agony guy. They sounded like a charming bunch. Especially the agony guy. She wanted to stay far away from him.
“Where do you rank?” She asked, tilting her head. Shinya tapped his nose with his finger
“Well, I'm glad you asked, sweetheart.” He began, with unneeded flair. Slowly, deliberately, he extended his arm, rolling up his sleeve with delicate fingers to reveal his locker key. The little plastic tag was emblazoned proudly with the number “10”. He grinned, raising his eyebrows at her, waiting for a reaction. Akira looked up at him.
“Cool.”
“ Just Cool? D’ya know how many hours of hard labour and games i’ve gone through for this?” Shinya questioned, his voice raising an octave. He seemed genuinely distressed at her lack of praise. She couldn't help but feel a little bad.
“No. Was it tough?”
“ ’was it tough?’” Shinya scoffed, folding his arms. “Of course it was tough!”
“Jesus! Sorry, dude.” Akira raised her arms in surrender. Shinya smirked at that.
“And, she finally shows another emotion.”
AKira froze, lowering her arms before glaring at him. It would be a miracle if he wasn’t dead by the time they arrived.
“I hate you”
“Never noticed.”
Akira opened her mouth to speak again, before Shinya raised a finger
“Those cards you get from games? You got any on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Which ones?”
“Uh.. four and five of spades, one of hearts.”
Kotori made a sound that sounded like he was sucking in air through his teeth.
“Tough luck”
“What? Wait, why? Is that bad?”
“Basically, one person needs, like, every single card to escape from here. That’s the beach's whole schtick. Every card goes to the number one. You -” Shinya pointed a finger at Akira “- have none we need. Sooo, you’re probably gonna be super low ranking.”
“Wait, what, what? Go back. Escaping, what about that?”
“You need every card to escape the borderlands.”
“How the hell did you find that out? That's awesome! We can all go home!”
“The No.1 has his ways. Pretty awesome, like that.”
“Has anyone ever escaped?”
“He’ll be the first!”
Kotori suddenly stopped walking, gesturing to a sign, with a sloppily graffitied “Beach” on it.
“And…we are here! One last thing though, sweetheart.”
“Now ya’ know all this - about the cards, and all that, ya’ can’t leave.”
YOU ARE READING
SOLITAIRE || AIB || OC
General FictionAkira Mitsumi was most certainly not expecting her train to stop. Less so, for everyone on the train to suddenly dissapear. Now, she has the entirety of an empty Tokyo at her fingertips. She didn't, however, intend to spend her first night there sav...
