Alice in Borderland ~ Chishiya

12

'From this day forward, we're starting an alliance, right?'

I look at Raiden and roll my eyes. 'Would you like me to sign an official document or something?' The corners of his mouth curl up slightly. 'No, but it might be useful to draw up some rules.' Now he's smiling. 'Because I wouldn't want to end up as your previous ally.' I shrug. 'Hey,' I reply, 'it's not my fault he was weak.' He seems to find my answer extremely amusing. His smile turns into a grin before he bends over the gas cylinder and starts to heat up some water in a pan.

'But you're right,' I tell him. 'If we want this alliance to work, we need to make some rules for clarification.' I make myself comfortable on this lawn chair I sit on. 'What were you thinking of?' Raiden takes a seat across from me and looks at me for a while.

'That seems fair,' I reply. I was thinking about something like that myself. When we have a group challenge that we have to complete as a team, we strengthen each other. But when we get something like the hearts game..

'Why do you assume that I will be the one who ends up in a critical situation?' he asks with a grin. 'Maybe you will, and you'd like for me to come and save you.' I shrug. 'That's bad luck for me, then.' He looks at me for a while before nodding. 'Okay,' he agrees. 'We're not friends.'

'But colleagues,' I agree. We nod at each other. 'And the games?' he asks. 'Will we participate in the same game at the same time?' I think about that for a moment. 'I find that a difficult one. Let's just say we can make a choice about that ourselves, okay? We are always free to choose if we will participate in the same game.'

Our visas are unlikely to expire at the same day. If he wants to play a game and I don't, I should be able to not participate and vice versa. He nods. 'And the cards?' he asks. 'We don't have to show them to each other,' I reply. He grins at me. 'Oh? I just wanted to build a house of cards together.' I roll my eyes in response.

'We won't hurt each other outside of the game,' he comes up with. 'Too bad, I was just about to slit your throat while you were sleeping,' I reply sarcastically. The corners of his mouth curl up slightly, but I can see he's elsewhere in his mind. 'Did someone hurt you outside of the game?' I ask. He looks at me with narrowed eyes. He's under no obligation to tell me and maybe he shouldn't. He realizes that, too, because he doesn't answer. Just when I think he's not going to do that at all, he shrugs and says: 'I've tried such an alliance before. Let's just say it didn't work out very well.'

'Then why do you want to start another one?' He gets up to look at the almost boiling water. 'Because it's necessary here.' He's right: how do you want to complete all games by yourself? Sometimes you'll just need someone, even if only as a shield. 'And in the game?' I ask. 'We don't hurt each other outside of the game, but what about in the game? Apart from the times when it's necessary.'

'I wouldn't really appreciate it if you'd screw me over when you don't have to,' he replies, 'but you have to decide that yourself. In any case, we agree that the other person will always hold that in account, okay?' I nod. 'Sure.'

Although we have agreed not to be friends but colleagues, Raiden turns the gas cylinder off as soon as the water has boiled, looks at me questioningly and asks: 'Tea?'

'Sure,' I reply again. He takes a mug and pours some boiled water into it before giving it to me. Without checking what flavour it is, I take one from the box and put it in the mug. He does the same and then sits down across from me again. 'And? What's your question?' I follow his gaze and arrive at the label of the tea bag. 'Have you forgotten the rules already?' I reply. 'We're not friends.' He shrugs. 'We have to do something in the meantime before participating in another game, don't we?' It seems like he sees these moments in between as useless, wasted time. As if he has to wait impatiently until he can play a game again. Does he see it that way? But he called them gruesome, didn't he?