𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐨 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚𝐤𝐢 was raised to be the queen on the chessboard. With brilliance in her blood and the weight of a medical dynasty on her shoulders, she spent her life calculating every move,winning over every room, and crushing her every opponent. All except one. 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐨 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐲𝐚, her mirror and her opposite, the heir to a rival empire. Their rivalry was a cold war of perfect scores, stolen glances, and a game neither could afford to lose. A lifelong match of white versus black. But when the world shatters and they're stuck in the Borderlands, their endless match is interrupted by something far more dangerous. Now, stripped of privilege and trapped in a new world, Rin and Chishiya must face the one thing they never prepared for: Each other.

𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐘𝐀 YASASHĪ -----» has been burdened with survival her entire life. Being constantly surrounded by crime and violence meant she had to be cautious. Not a single hair could cross a line, otherwise she'd be killed. She learnt to read people on a whole other level. She knew what people wanted before they even wanted it. She could practically hear every emotion going through a persons head, her only problem was that she could feel every emotion too. 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐘𝐀 SHUNTARŌ -----»is the opposite. Emotions are a foreign concept. Selflessness is a weakness. The only way to stay ahead was to make sure that other people were behind. So, he ensured that he was in front by using others to protect himself. He didn't care who got hurt. Self-preservation is his key to survival. Now that they are stuck in the borderlands together, Katya has to survive with him and face the darkest moments in her life. And Chishiya has to watch as Katya does the thing he is incapable of doing. Care.

𝓔𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀 𝓜𝐈𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐈 was that doll you never wanted. A porcelain beauty left to rot in flower pressed graves that simply took the skin of a beautiful, human psychiatrist. Her beauty was one that bloomed in cherry blossoms- the dearly resident, and carefully curated center-piece to her lonely dollhouse. She never minded seeing her porcelain skin covered in blood and wept tears if that meant to know the answer to love. 𝓣hen, she looked into the mirror. 𝓢𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐎 𝓒𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐘𝐀 was an apathetically grey heart surgeon who didn't understand love. Didn't need love. An empty soul bearing the skin of an alike empty human. He worked with careful precision and emotionless strategy that didn't require feelings, or did he believe in finding the answer to love. He didn't understand hearts, he learnt to fix them- Well, only theirs and never his own. 𝓣wo morbid souls who could never truly accept each other- or maybe just their own, distorted reflections. 𝓣hey simply follow each other, falling down into the rabbit hole- just two heartless, empty dolls, one born to save, and the other to heal fractured hearts, finding themselves in the Borderlands. 𝓣here there is no room for morality, nor principles, let alone for judging what is good and what is evil. 𝓟erhaps that is what makes humanity so beautiful to people who already lost theirs. ──── 🃚 ──── started: july 3rd 2025 status: incomplete ended: n/a