All For A Few Cards ➺ Alice in Borderland

episode 9 || manipulation gets you by

I stared up at the game arena. An apartment building. I walked up the steps to the entrance. There weren't many people there. I grabbed a phone from the table. It scanned my face and repeated whatever it had to say.

I leaned on a big pillar on the right that pointed at the staircase, in which I could get a perfect view of new people coming. I scanned over the people there currently were. Two girls who appeared to be friends. An old lady. Some dude with a formal hat. And a businessman. 

No one is going to survive. The friends are going to either betray each other or they'll sacrifice themselves. There's no need to explain the old lady. The dude with the hat just looked plainly stupid. And as for the businessman, he's wearing a fancy suit, meaning this is either his first game, or he prefers impression over practicality. He'll be the first to go. 

Someone new was walking up the stairs. He had a look of confusion written all over his face. He walked up to me. "Hey, do you know what's going on?" He asked. 

I put my figure to my lips and grabbed a phone. I put it in his hands. He looked down at it. It scanned his face. "What?" He breathed out. "Don't die." I said. He stared at me with frightened eyes. I wanted to laugh. 

"Die? What do you mean die?" He frantically questioned. I shrugged and nodded at him to go stand with the others. He did and walked up to the old lady and started asking her. A few minutes passed before someone new came. 

A man in his late forties. He had glasses. He's new. If he weren't, those glasses would've been knocked out of his face the second he entered his first game. But here he is with his glasses. And anyways, they'll get knocked out today either way. He'll be blind without them. 

A while later, someone else stepped through the game arena. A militant. He's small and skinny. He won't last long either. A minute later, a girl came. I smirked when I saw her. "Oh, hey, Aria!" She smiled. 

"Hi, Usagi." I gave her a downward smile. "Glad to see you here." She told me, grabbing a phone. "Excited to finally find some competition." I told her. She smirked. The new guy walked up to her. "Excuse me, where did all the people in Tokyo go?" 

All of a sudden, I felt eyes burning on me. And then I turned to meet eyes with Chishiya. I almost jumped out of surprise. How the fuck did I not see him there before? His famous smirk crawled onto his lips when our eyes met. I stared at him with piercing eyes. 

A buff body crossed our eye contact. Aguni. Shiiiit. This game might actually be interesting. 

We waited a few seconds before two guys walked in. They mentioned something about a doctor. But then I realized I knew one of them. No...I knew both of them.

"Arisu?" I asked. He turned around to look at me. "Oh! Aria! Hi, I didn't see you there." He smiled. I returned it. "You know her?" His friend asked, eyeing me suspiciously. "You do too. Remember? Aria saved me from our first game." He explained. "I'm hurt." I teased, touching my chest with a smirk. He chuckled nervously. "Right, yeah sorry about that." 

I laughed softly. "I'm Karube." He said. "Aria." I said back. "Hey, um, thanks for saving Arisu during our last game together. You were great," he said shyly. I shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "Friends help each other, right?" I said. Nothing better than manipulating a bunch of newbies. "Yeah, of course!" Arisu smiled. I smiled back. The phones dinged.

Registration closed
There are 14 participants 
The game will now commence 

The announcer explained the rules. We had 20 minutes. The game was called Tag. The goal was to find the correct door and run from the tagger. Five of spades. The game seemed easy. I was a bit shocked that it was a level five game, though. I expected level three or four. 

We had five minutes as an advantage to run, hide and look before the tagger came out. The apartment complex was seven floors high. I was going to go up to the seventh floor, but then I realized Chishiya was going up there. I could...but I won't. 

So I decided on the fifth floor. Chishiya took the elevator. I took the stairs. The friends quickly pushed past me as I calmly made my way up the stairs. Panicking is the definition of death in this world. Good luck to them...but then again, they don't need luck for me to know that they're already fucked. 

When I made it to the fifth floor, I went over to a wall next to an aisle that led to the elevator. I wasn't going to take the elevator when the tagger was chasing me. What kind of fucking idiot would do that? No. I had already formed a plan the minute the announcer told us the rules of the game. 

I leaned against the wall and dug in my bra. I took out my box of cigarettes. Yes, I hide cigarettes in my bra under my boob. A push-up bra isn't what's pushing my boobs up. Of course, I only hide them there during games. 

I took out my lighter from my sweater pocket and lit my cigarette in between my lips. Some time later, the game started. Trumpets began to play. That's new. 

I listened closely. The tagger was going to go up the elevator. Why use the stairs and cause a scene when you could go up to any floor and catch people by surprise? I just need to know where they are. 

I soon heard heavy and slow footsteps above me. That must be the tagger. I needed to move to the corner so I could see where he was more clearly. But I couldn't. In order for my plan to work, I had to be exactly where I was right now. 

Fuck, i should've gone up to the seventh floor and continued my plan from there. Whatever, this works better anyways. Once my plan had succeeded, the tagger would get distracted and I could climb up onto the sixth floor. It's harder to shoot up rather than down. I've chosen a perfect spot. 

The game was slower than I wished. There were a few gunshots and screams here and there, but other than that, it was pretty boring, if I had to be honest. 

I felt a sharp gaze on me every now and then. I followed the gaze and came across Chishiya staring down at me. I stared back until he looked away. We did that throughout the game. 

The tagger was some buff person (presumably a man) with a horse mask and layers of jackets—his protection. His weak spot was his sight, boots, and reloading. Sight because he couldn't see very clearly with the mask that covered his face. Boots because they were loud and carried attention. And reloading his gun because it gave the opponent time to run. 

I checked on my phone. Seven minutes have passed. No one had figured out the correct door so far. But I figured it out in five minutes. The room was on the fourth floor. I just didn't know which door it was exactly. The tagger kept going back to the fourth floor. It was obvious to an open eyed person that the room was there. 

I heard the elevator ding. Loud and heavy footsteps followed. It was time to begin my plan. I looked up at Chishiya. He looked alarmed. He was looking my way. If he says anything, I'm going to fucking kill him. One word out of him is all that takes for the tagger to realize I was right next to him. 

Step.
Step. 
Step. 

"Aria! Behind you!" Someone shouted. That motherfu—

Bang!

•°♤♡◇♧°•

❝ [ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ] ❞

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. "𝘎𝘰, 𝘈𝘳𝘪𝘢! 𝘙𝘶𝘯!" 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘈𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘶. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘯. 𝘉𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘸 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. "𝘖𝘞!" 𝘐 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵. 𝘈 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘨.

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