Marionette ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

Interval - Part One

Returning to the hotel in the morning, Chishiya was carefully stepping through the now fragile structure. The fire had died down but he could still feel the heat. Kurenai was walking behind him, looking around the place as he did.

This was not the Beach they knew.

The walls were charred from the fire, and although she did not want to liken it, the entire place smells like a barbecue from all the bodies left behind and burnt.

"I thought we could come back and look for the register and the card but I think everything's destroyed in the fire," Chishiya sighed.

"We only have the face cards left now," Kurenai commented.

"Are you worried?"

Looking up, their eyes met, and they were both smirking.

Worry was the last thing on her mind. During her stay in Borderland, Kurenai had played countless games, and cleared all of them. To her, the face cards made no difference. They would simply be games they had to clear. The only thing off putting was the difficulty, though she believed they could overcome that too.

"Well, I guess our main worry now is finding a new place to stay," Chishiya said, kicking some debris out of the way. "This wasn't the best place but at least it was shelter."

"I think I know a place to go."

--

"So this was where you lived?"

"Yes."

"And you thought it'd be a great idea to live in the penthouse, on the eightieth floor?"

"I didn't plan for a dystopian world where electricity is cut off when I bought the place."

Looking up at a seemingly endless flight of stairs, Chishiya looked back to see Kurenai already climbing the stairs. He followed after her and in about twenty minutes, they were up eighty floors, albeit both were out of breath by then.

"I think I really need to downgrade to a house..." Kurenai mumbled.

She opened the emergency exit door, walking into a hallway that led to the front door of her apartment. With electricity out, the electronic biometric lock she had installed was no longer working though it did not seem like anyone else had come here before her. Then again, no one would have thought to climb eighty flights of stairs.

Stepping into her apartment, Kurenai instinctively took her shoes off and breathed in deeply, coughing when she inhaled a little too much dust. Although not to the extreme of the rest of Tokyo, her loft penthouse was covered in a layer of dust and looked as if it had been abandoned for a year or two.

Walking in behind her, Chishiya froze a little by the front door.

He knew she was rich, one could infer from her family name. Though, it was always hard for someone to grasp just how rich the Chuya family could be. Kurenai was apparently just the child of Chuya Atsushi, and had no role in the company. She simply held some shares that were given to her on her eighteenth birthday.

And she was living in a loft penthouse that was as big as a house.

"Shocked?" Kurenai asked, giggling at Chishiya. "Be nice to your sugar mama."

"It's not surprising, but it is a lot to take in," he admitted, closing the door behind him. "So we have shelter, but what about food and water?"

As if she had been waiting to show him, Kurenai brought him to the open kitchen and pressed on the door of a floor length cupboard. The door swung open gently and silently, revealing what looked like a mini room that was completely stocked up.

"My live-in housekeeper, Ayako-san, cooks all my meals with fresh ingredients but she stocked this pantry up with canned food and bottled water," Kurenai explained. "She checks on the expiry dates every so often and would replace them if they were nearing those dates and donate the old cans. While she knows I don't usually eat these things, she said it never hurts to be prepared. I think Ayako-san is very right."

She picked a random can off the shelf and checked the bottom of the can before smiling at Chishiya.

"Not expired. I love Ayako-san."

Closing the pantry door, Kurenai took Chishiya on a quick tour of her penthouse. There was her open kitchen, fully equipped with two large fridges, eight burner stoves, and two ovens. In her living room, she had a 65" curved OLED TV and multiple gaming systems with a home theatre sound system.

One thing Chishiya noticed, however, was she had no photos at all.

None of her parents, her brother, nor even herself. Not even a cliché family photo that most families would have. Not a single photo frame was in sight.

Kurenai then took him upstairs where she got a little too excited.

"This is my favourite room."

She pushed the door open to a walk-in closet that was about twice the size of a normal bedroom. There were racks and racks of clothes hanging on the side with cupboards dedicated to her jewelry. She even had an entire wall of just shoes.

"Home is truly the best place to be," she sighed, looking through her clothes for something to change into. "Oh!" Going to a corner, she opened the cupboard door to reveal some men's clothes. "Pick anything you want from here. I think you're about the same size."

"Same size? As who?" Chishiya asked.

While he would not call it jealousy, Chishiya was curious. Kurenai did not seem like the type to cheat if she was in a relationship, and she did not look like she was in a relationship with all the things they had been doing to each other. Even if she did have casual relationships back in the real world, was it conventional to keep clothes for those people?

Still, Chishiya chose a t-shirt, another hoodie, and a pair of shorts. He was not about to pass up the opportunity for some fresh clothes. And like Kurenai predicted, the clothes fitted.

"So whose clothes am I wearing?" Chishiya asked. "Just in case we bump into an ex or current boyfriend here. At least I'd know why if I suddenly get punched."

"Ew, no," Kurenai frowned a little, having changed into an oversized white boyfriend shirt and shorts. "Those are my brother's clothes," she said. "He sleeps over sometimes so I gave him a space to keep his clothes. Wait..." she grinned, walking up to Chishiya. "Were you jealous?"

"I was not."

"Hm...So, what if I told you that I once dated a supermodel?" she asked. "He was over six feet tall, great body."

"Then why did you dump him?"

"How did you know I dumped him? He could have dumped me." Chishiya chuckled softly, holding her face in his hands. Was he really supposed to believe that she would be dumped? "He would be the perfect man for most people, but he was really boring. He could never hold a proper conversation with me."

As he thought before, if one were to be in a relationship with Kurenai, they would have to keep up with her both physically and intellectually.

She leaned in and pressed her lips gently on Chishiya's. She had dated a few men here and there, slept with a handful more. They were all typical men that others would describe as an ideal partner but none of them lasted long in a relationship with Kurenai. None of them intrigued her as much as Chishiya did in just one night. None of them challenged her as much as Chishiya did.

"Shuntarou...I've never done it in here before," she whispered. "Shall we?"