Alice in Borderland: The Cycle Continues

11) Three of Hearts [1] ✮

Five days after the Eight of Spades....

===Benkei Furetchā===

I opened my eyes, and was met by the blinding glare of the afternoon sun overhead.

Groaning, I turned to my side. "T...Tori?" I rasped.

Tori turned their head towards me, lying a few meters away. "What—" They coughed. "What happened?"

I closed my eyes, digging into the past. "I... There were some fireworks, weren't there?"

Tori rubbed their eyes, lightly stretching their back. "I think so? Actually—yes, there were."

I gasped. "It was late at night too; we were taking that bus ride to Kyoto for the comic convention.

Tori tilted their head, their long blue hair cascading down their wrinkling clothing. "And then... After that firework went off, we were inside of some sort of wormhole. There were a bunch of children's toys. I felt so stiff, like I was some sort of wooden doll."

I shook my head. "But where are we?" The buildings towered over us, the dramatic shade offering a deep coolness despite the hot sun. The buildings seemed ancient; each teemed with vines, cracks, and moss.

"It's Tokyo, obviously. But everyone's gone." Tori said. "And it's ancient. Maybe we traveled forward in time."

"That's ridiculous." I said, dismissing the idea.

"Maybe the explosion from the firework killed everyone but us."

"Then wouldn't the ground be littered with corpses?" That gave Tori a pause.

"There's no stable explanation, no matter how you look at it. We've both defied the laws of like, every single physics law that has ever existed."

Tori rolled their eyes. "Oh please. There's a first for everything. Who knows? Newton probably thought it strange when that apple fell on his head, I don't know. We're kind of like in his shoes right now—"

"That apple never fell on his head, it's only a myth—"

"Benkei, nobody cares. That was just an example. Regardless, it doesn't matter how we got into this new world, we should be trying to figure out how to get out."

I threw my hands over my head. "Okay, so how do we generate another wormhole?"

Tori rubbed their chin, pausing momentarily. "Let's try to set off fireworks again tonight at dawn."

I nodded. "Okay. Okay. Let's do that."

"You know what I just realized?"

"Hmm?"

"We should be freaking out right now. We just fucking teleported through a wormhole into an alternate reality. Yet, strangely, we're both pretty calm."

I shrugged. "Maybe it's an effect of this world? Everyone feels a perpetual sense of calm."

"Okay, let's prepare for the night." Tori looked up at the sky, the light causing them to squint their eyes. "I think it looks like noon."

"There's probably a grocery store nearby."

"We need food, as well as a knife and lighters. We also need something that's flammable, preferably wood or newspapers, so we can make a fire."

"Let's get moving then." I said, getting up and dusting off my shorts.

We made a lengthy trek to a nearby supermarket, salvaging a good amount of canned food as well as two knives, a bat, a few lighters, two flashlights, and some newspaper.