Alice in Borderland

Chapter 108

'You guys look like shit,' Niragi leans relaxed against our vehicle with his beloved gun resting loosely on his shoulder. His eyebrows twitch slightly at the sight of the black pistol in my hand, but he seems to accept it and his successful grin after completing the game doesn't fade.

'My fault,' I raise my voice, while Arisu remains standing with watchful eyes and scrutinises the shooter critically. 'Could have used your shooting skills for the first time.'

'You okay?' his smile sifts slightly before his gaze moves past me to Chishiya and the rookie, maintaining his playful smile. I manage a brief, less than warm smile despite my reverberating pain and simply climb into the back seat of our transport. Although the tension and my new position make me want to disappear from the hotel, I can't imagine spending the night anywhere else after what I've experienced today. 'Get in the passenger seat, the jumping jack can sit in the back.'

An amused smile creeps onto my lips when I hear Chishiya's name and I step forwards without saying a word. I pull the car door shut with my healthy arm and lean my forehead against it. Although Chishiya has set my arm, I am exhausted and in pain, and it will not miraculously disappear. My mind drifts off as I think again of Haruto's words about Chishiya's past and let the cold of the night empty my head.

I can feel Niragi's sideways glances on me, but right now I'm incapable of coming up with various lies and explaining the situation with half-truths.

'You were in a save room?' I change the subject, which is obviously hovering in the air, and he laughs out loud. Many people would superficially categorise him as a brutal spades player, but he's not stupid. I've often noticed that he seems to shine in diamond games.
'I had to use pressure switches to react, but it was like in a video game, you could limit the possibilities with probabilities,' he replies with a confident grin and a slightly proud smile steals onto my lips. I have to be careful with this man, I'm afraid of him and yet I'm fascinated by his cautious streak towards me. 'And you stayed in the arena and challenged the hunters?''You know me,' I reply naturally as he looks at the black pistol in my hand. My gaze glides out to the passing streetlights.

'I'm sure you would have passed the Save Room too, 'clever little head',' he quotes Aguni and I just roll my eyes. Sometimes the new King of the Beach says it disdainfully, as if it's an insult to call someone intelligent, and yet I enjoy it every time. In my life before Borderland, no one called me intelligent, not even close...
The new king... It sounds ridiculous in my head. It's like the life of the Hatter has disappeared from everyone's minds. Aguni and the Hatter were friends, I paid attention to the signs in my early days and never stopped my observations, how can he just take his place? The military squad leader is cold as ever but he is withdrawing, probably grieving in his own way. I can't judge, in this country grief is a distraction in the games to die. How long have I grieved for Norikita or Izumi, perhaps I have given the tears permission to flow for one evening.

Gloomily, I pull myself out of my intertwining thoughts and lower my eyes downwards in the association that the passing scenery makes me pensive. My head swivels to the other side for a change and I scrutinise the black-haired driver. Niragi holds the steering wheel loosely in his right hand, his favourite motorised side, I notice. Anyway, I can tell by the way he carries and aims his sniper rifle. His clothes may have some noticeable paint residue, but no seams are torn or damaged, he hasn't been injured with a weapon. He doesn't seem to have had any problems in the game before coming to his save room.
'Can we skip the management meeting today to go and eat something in the canteen?' I remark cheekily and grin provocatively at his sideways glance in a matter of seconds.

'You're really grumpy when you're hungry,' the black-haired sniper snorts slightly contemptuously and a growl escapes my throat.

'And you're generally hard to take,' I counter with an angelic smile and his face falls. A playful twinkle flickers in his eyes and a murderous smile plays around his lips. For a moment there is a murderous tension in the air and I can actually hear the newcomer gasping for air in the back seat, but that very sound seems to calm the driver with satisfaction and my eyes narrow. Could his aggression evaporate if someone is afraid of him? Maybe it gives him a sense of security to have the upper hand in a country he can't control. A kind of defence mechanism.

'If there's nothing official to discuss today, you don't have to go to the conference room anyway. I'll take care of that,' Niragi nods relaxed and pays attention to the road again. Why would a man calm down when he knows that others are afraid of him? Perhaps he wants to assume an alpha position, or he wants to protect himself from attack. Does this attitude stem from Borderland or from his life before it? Given that I have a lot to do with this man through the games and the leadership team, I don't really know anything about his previous life.

'Well, I didn't feel like it anyway,' Chishiya comments arrogantly and I want to laugh out loud, but a pain runs through my arm and I fall silent immediately. Damn, I hope the pain subsides soon.
'New rule in my car: everyone who doesn't have breasts, shut up!' Niragi salivates and looks venomously at the man in the white waistcoat through the rear-view mirror. During the change of leadership at the Beach, I've already noticed that these two opposing men can't stand each other:
While Niragi has a kind of rebellious aura with his piercings and long hair and dresses in dark colours, Chishiya's white-blonde hair and white waistcoat look almost innocent, if you ignore his hidden, secretly sly look.

'Strictly speaking, all people, whether male, female or diverse, have breasts. The components are the pectoralis major and minor muscles, the serratus anterior and subclavius muscles,' I remark meekly and instinctively cross my arms in front of my upper body. The prevailing silence after a game creates space for my brain to go through and process the scenarios I have just experienced; perhaps I actually want to distract myself from thinking about the dead and weave facts into this conversation.

'Did you study medicine?' Arisu asks and I can't help but smile as I think about Chishiya.

'My A-levels weren't good enough, I guess,' I reveal honestly, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly. At school, I tried to conform to my popularity and played dumb to fit in. Meanwhile, I could answer all the exam questions with ease, but social interactions were better invested in the long run. Niragi can't let it go and intervenes: 'Have you been bugging the teachers for so long that they failed you?'